Audit companies began to raise prices for their services under contracts in 2024

Audit companies began to raise prices for their services under 2024 contracts. At the same time, Big Four companies are mainly limited by the level of inflation, while second-tier companies often allow themselves to increase prices more strongly. According to experts, the difference in strategies is primarily due to the desire of market leaders to maintain their positions in the face of a serious increase in competition. However, the cost of auditing the largest companies is initially higher, so in absolute terms the difference is not too large.

B1, DRT, Kept and Trust Technologies have raised prices for their services for auditing IFRS and RAS for contracts in 2024, two of the companies told Kommersant. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the cost of the audit has increased by approximately 4–7%. Price dynamics for individual clients may vary greatly, but the price has increased for the majority of customers.

“The trend towards an increase in the cost of audit services is also relevant for other market participants,” says Igor Tokarev, senior managing partner of the DRT company. According to the general director of Univers-Audit Dmitry Limarenko, some large and medium-sized companies have raised prices by 7–10%.

According to market participants, the increase in prices is primarily due to rising costs and “regulatory pressure.” Against the backdrop of increasing inflation, current costs are increasing, including for staff salaries and rent, which is why it is necessary to increase the cost of services for clients in order to maintain profitability, explains B1 partner Igor Buyan. According to Rosstat, for 2023 inflation amounted to 7.4%. This year it continues to grow – 7.6% year on year in February.

In the auditing business, costs are estimated based on the cost of man-hours. “Due to rising inflation, staff demands for salaries are growing, and audit companies are raising salaries, because in conditions of personnel shortages, companies are trying to retain employees,” explains Mr. Tokarev. In addition, according to him, audit time is increasing due to increased regulatory requirements for documentation and verification of specific areas, in particular compliance with anti-money laundering legislation.

In particular, according to a Kommersant source in a large audit company, previously transactions carried out by the client remained under the responsibility of only the field team of auditors. Now the entire volume of transactions is transferred to a special official of the company, who independently reviews them and then decides which transactions to inform Rosfinmonitoring about, he says.

The gap in the rate of price increases between the Big Four and other market participants may be due to intensifying competition. Now the Big Four companies do not have an exclusive position when auditing financial statements under IFRS, notes Sergei Nikiforov, general director of the auditing company FBK Povolzhye. In particular, some clients are considering switching from market leaders to other auditors; issuers entering the public market use the services of a wide range of auditors. In addition, audit companies have to compete with each other within the framework of the registers of the Federal Treasury and the Central Bank (audit of socially significant organizations, socially significant organizations in the financial market), notes Kommersant’s interlocutor in the audit market.

However, the increase in prices lower than the market for the Big Four may be due to the fact that the market leaders already had high prices, market participants clarify. If you look at open statistics, the average bill at the Big Four companies ranges from 3–5 million rubles. for one audit report, which is at least one and a half times more than other large market participants, notes a Kommersant source in a large audit company. Moreover, for some large holdings the cost can be tens of millions of rubles.

Yulia Poslavskaya