Glossary
Audit Support / PBC Compilation
Audit support, often called PBC compilation, is the work of assembling and organizing everything your external auditor asks for so their audit runs on time and without surprises. PBC stands for Prepared by Client, the list of schedules, reconciliations, and supporting documents the auditor expects you to hand over. It is used by any company that has an external audit, and it matters most for public issuers filing on a quarterly and annual clock. At Treewalk, we prepare the financial statements and the full audit package on your behalf, then act as the single point of contact with your auditor. We do not perform audits or attest work, and that separation is the point: your auditor stays independent while our team does the heavy lifting to get you through the review.
What it actually is
An audit is not one document. It is a long list of requests, and the PBC list is where most of the friction lives. The auditor sends a schedule of items they need, and someone has to produce each one, tie it back to the general ledger, and answer the follow-up questions that come after.
That “someone” is where we fit. Our financial reporting team compiles the supporting file the auditor works from, which typically includes:
- Consolidated working papers tied to the trial balance
- Reconciliations for cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and key balance sheet accounts
- Interim and annual financial statements prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
- Board and Audit Committee resolutions, plus CEO and CFO certificates
- Responses to auditor queries, backed by source documents
The goal is a clean handoff. When the auditor opens the file and finds every number already supported, the review moves faster and the fees stay closer to plan.
Who hires us for this
Most of the audit support work we do is for public companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) and the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). These issuers report on a quarterly cadence and cannot miss a filing deadline without a cease-trade risk, so the audit package has to be ready when the auditor is.
We have run this process across mining, healthcare and biotech, technology, cannabis, and energy issuers. On several of those mandates, we also served as the acting or fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO), which means the same team that signed the certifications also built the file the auditor reviewed. Private companies with a lender-required or investor-required audit hire us for the same reason: they want the audit handled, not just the bookkeeping.
How we approach it at Treewalk
We treat the audit as a project with a deadline, not a scramble that starts when the auditor calls. Through the quarter we keep the general ledger review current, so year-end is a compilation exercise rather than a rebuild. Then we coordinate the quarterly reviews and the annual audit directly with your external audit firm, archive every document they request, and chase down the open items before they become a bottleneck.
The financial statements are rarely what holds up an audit. It is the support: the one reconciliation nobody kept during the year, the intercompany entry with no backup, the accrual that never got a schedule. Fix the support discipline and the audit stops being painful.
This is the Office of the CFO working the way it should. Your auditor gets a responsive, accountable counterpart who speaks their language, and you get your filing out on time.
What this is NOT
This is the part people get wrong, so we say it plainly. Treewalk does not audit and does not issue an audit opinion. We are not your auditor, and we cannot be, because the firm preparing the statements cannot also provide independent assurance on them. Our role is to prepare and support; the external auditor’s role is to examine and opine.
Audit support is also different from a compilation engagement in the assurance sense. A formal compilation results in a compiled financial information report under Canadian standards, which is a distinct service. When we say “PBC compilation,” we mean compiling the audit-ready package for your auditor, not issuing an assurance report ourselves.
What you get
The output is a complete, auditor-ready file plus a team that manages the process end to end. In practice that means:
- Financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) prepared and reconciled
- A full PBC package sent to the auditor, organized to their request list
- Direct liaison with the external audit firm through review and year-end
- Regulatory filing support, including SEDAR+ filing coordination and the certificates and resolutions that go with it
Timing depends on the size and cleanliness of your books. For a public issuer we have kept current through the year, the annual audit package usually comes together in the weeks after year-end rather than months.
Frequently asked questions
Is audit support the same as an audit?
No. An audit is an independent examination that ends in an opinion, and only an external auditor can perform it. Audit support is the preparation and coordination work that gets you ready for that audit. Treewalk does the support; a separate, independent audit firm does the audit.
Does hiring you compromise auditor independence?
No. We prepare the statements and the supporting file, and the external auditor independently examines them. That is a normal, accepted division of roles. Because we are not your auditor, your auditor’s independence is preserved.
We are a small TSXV issuer. Do we really need this?
If you have an external audit and quarterly filing obligations, the work has to be done by someone. The question is whether your internal team has the time and the reporting depth to do it under IFRS on deadline. Many venture issuers hire us precisely because they do not.
Can you help if our audit is already behind?
Yes. We are often brought in to rebuild support and reconciliations when a review has stalled. It is harder and less predictable than starting clean, but getting the file in order and working directly with the auditor is exactly what we do.
How is this different from a Big Four style firm?
The largest firms are usually your auditor, not your preparer, and those roles cannot be the same firm. We sit on your side of the table as the preparer and coordinator, which lets your auditor stay independent while you get hands-on help getting there.
Where to next
If you are preparing for an external audit and want the reporting handled properly, our work for public companies is built around exactly this: audit-ready statements and a clean PBC package. From here it also helps to understand IFRS financial statement preparation, how MD&A fits the filing, and what SEDAR+ filing support involves once the audit is done. To talk through your audit timeline, email Alex McAulay through our contact page.
