Retail Audit

Retail is thin-margin and detail-heavy, and its audits should reflect that: inventory tested where shrinkage really happens, revenue reconciled from till and platform to ledger, and fieldwork timed around your golden quarter rather than through it. We audit high street, online and omnichannel retailers — and we will not schedule a stock count for the week before Christmas.

Retail Sector Expertise

We audit high street and destination retailers, e-commerce and marketplace sellers, multi-site retail chains and franchises, fashion and apparel brands, food and beverage retail, and specialty retail. Omnichannel operations are the norm now — our testing follows the transaction across store, web, marketplace and click-and-collect rather than treating each channel in isolation.

Inventory: Where Retail Audits Are Won

We plan count attendance across stores, warehouses and third-party logistics providers, test perpetual inventory and cycle-count regimes, and audit shrinkage allowances against loss-prevention data. Valuation testing covers cost formulas, landed costs and freight, supplier rebates and settlement discounts netted against cost, and markdowns to net realisable value on seasonal and slow-moving ranges — the judgement that most directly moves retail gross margin.

Revenue, Refunds and Gift Cards

Retail revenue testing reconciles POS and e-commerce platform data through payment processors to the ledger, with cut-off testing around the year end and peak trading. We audit the deferred income and provision judgements retail creates: gift cards and vouchers (including breakage estimates), customer loyalty schemes, refund and returns provisions — critical for online retailers — and marketplace arrangements where gross-versus-agent presentation determines your reported turnover.

Leases: The 2026 Accounting Change

For UK GAAP retailers this is the big one: FRS 102 changes effective for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026 bring most operating leases onto the balance sheet as right-of-use assets with corresponding liabilities. For a store portfolio that transforms the balance sheet, EBITDA and loan covenant metrics. We model the transition with you before the first affected year end — and brief your lenders' questions before they ask them.

Seasonality, Cash Flow and Going Concern

Retail cash flow concentrates into peaks, making going concern assessment genuinely analytical: peak-season working capital, supplier payment terms and credit insurance, covenant headroom and post-year-end trading. We test forecasts against seasonal patterns rather than straight-line assumptions, and our audit timetable is planned around your trading calendar — planning and interim work in quiet months, so the year-end sprint is short.

Why Choose Acumon for Retail Audits

Sector-experienced teams, count programmes that respect store operations, data analytics through the Inflo platform that test whole populations of till data rather than tiny samples, fixed fees, and integrated VAT and tax advice — from retail schemes to customs and duty questions for importers. Clear findings your buying and finance teams can use.

What You Get With Acumon

• High street, e-commerce, omnichannel and multi-site retailers
• Stock count programmes across stores, warehouses and 3PLs
• Shrinkage, markdown and net realisable value testing
• POS-to-ledger and platform-to-ledger revenue reconciliation
• Gift card, loyalty and returns provision audits
• FRS 102 lease capitalisation transition support for 2026
• Fieldwork timed around peak trading, not through it

Why Acumon for Retail Audit?

• ICAEW-registered and FRC-authorised audit firm
• Audit portfolio includes recognised consumer brands such as Sharp Electronics, Linguaphone and Kuoni
• Inflo data analytics enable whole-population testing of till and platform data
• Integrated VAT and tax advisory alongside audit
• 90+ UK-based staff with hybrid remote fieldwork

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.