Desk with financial charts and a calculator

11 March 2026

What External Reviewers Usually Ask for in Week One

The first request list rarely surprises seasoned controllers—but incomplete bank reconciliations and unsigned contracts still slow every engagement.

External reviewers arriving for a Taiwan statutory audit or group reporting package typically open with the same cluster of requests: trial balance, bank reconciliations for all material accounts, fixed-asset roll-forward, and the prior-year management letter with status of each point.

What slows fieldwork is not the length of that list. It is missing signatures on lease schedules, revenue cut-off samples without shipping documents, and related-party listings that do not match the disclosure note. Those gaps force follow-up emails and stretch the calendar.

Before the engagement letter is even signed, map last year’s final binder to this year’s chart of accounts. Flag accounts that grew more than 20% or that changed process owners. Those are the folders reviewers will dig into first.

Keep a living request tracker with owner, due date, and file path. When the reviewer sends PBC item #14, your team should already know which reconciliation and which supporting PDF answer it—without hunting through personal desktops.

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