What are Prepared By Client Requests?
Definition
Prepared By Client Requests are audit information requests that the company, or client, must prepare and provide to external auditors. They are commonly called PBC requests and may include schedules, reconciliations, contracts, reports, calculations, approvals, explanations, and supporting documents used to test financial statement balances and controls.
Prepared By Client Requests are a core part of external audit preparation because auditors rely on client-prepared evidence to verify reported numbers. A strong PBC discipline helps finance teams support financial reporting, reduce audit follow-ups, and show that balances are complete, accurate, reviewed, and traceable to source records.
How Prepared By Client Requests Work
The auditor usually sends a PBC list before or during audit fieldwork. Each request describes the required document, reporting period, due date, format, owner, and sometimes a sample selection. The company then assigns the request to the right finance, accounting, tax, treasury, legal, HR, IT, or operations owner.
After the file is prepared, it should be reviewed internally before submission. For example, a fixed asset roll-forward should agree to the general ledger, include additions and disposals, tie to depreciation expense, and include review evidence. This review step makes audit PBC requests more reliable and helps auditors complete testing with fewer clarifications.
Common Types of Requests
Prepared By Client Requests can cover almost every major audit area. Common examples include:
Financial schedules: Trial balance reports, lead schedules, roll-forwards, account listings, and variance explanations.
Reconciliation support: Bank reconciliations, subledger tie-outs, balance sheet reconciliations, and reconciling item details.
Transaction evidence: Invoices, purchase orders, contracts, payment records, credit memos, and journal support.
Control evidence: Review sign-offs, access approvals, approval logs, change records, and segregation-of-duties support.
Disclosure support: Debt schedules, lease schedules, related party details, commitments, contingencies, and subsequent events.
Key Finance Areas Covered
Many PBC requests focus on balance sheet support. account reconciliation files show how reported balances agree to bank records, subledgers, vendor statements, customer ledgers, inventory records, or fixed asset registers. A clean reconciliation should include the source balance, general ledger balance, reconciling items, owner, aging, and reviewer approval.
Income statement areas also require strong evidence. For revenue, auditors may request contract listings, billing reports, deferred revenue schedules, cut-off support, and revenue recognition analysis. For expenses, auditors may request accrual calculations, invoice samples, payroll support, and cost center variance explanations.
Controls and Review Discipline
Prepared By Client Requests should not be submitted without review. Each file should be checked for completeness, period accuracy, version control, source references, and agreement to the trial balance. If a schedule does not tie to the ledger, finance teams should explain the difference clearly before sending it to auditors.
Controls-related PBC items often include journal entry approval, user access reviews, management review evidence, and approval workflows. These files help auditors evaluate whether transactions were authorized, reviewed, recorded in the correct period, and supported by appropriate documentation.
Systems and Specialized Evidence
Some requests come from systems rather than spreadsheets. Auditors may ask for ERP reports, report parameters, user access listings, change logs, interface reconciliations, or system-generated transaction exports. Strong ERP audit evidence helps show that the data used for financial reporting came from controlled and reliable sources.
Specialized requests may also relate to lease accounting, fixed assets, inventory valuation, tax provisions, debt agreements, legal contingencies, or credit loss allowances. These areas often require both numerical schedules and supporting documents such as contracts, management memos, assumptions, approvals, and roll-forward calculations.
Metrics and Practical Example
Prepared By Client Requests can be measured using request completion rate, on-time submission rate, average response time, open request aging, auditor follow-up count, rework volume, and audit adjustment count. These metrics help controllers understand whether audit support is timely, complete, and well organized.
One useful metric is PBC on-time completion rate. The formula is: PBC on-time completion rate = PBC requests submitted by due date / total PBC requests × 100. For example, if auditors issue 340 requests and the finance team submits 306 complete requests by the due date, the PBC on-time completion rate is 306 / 340 × 100 = 90%. This helps leaders identify the remaining 10% by owner, account area, evidence type, and audit impact.
Best Practices for Managing PBC Requests
Finance teams can improve PBC management by using one audit request tracker, assigning a single owner per request, standardizing file names, reviewing evidence before submission, and tying every schedule to the ledger or source system. Teams should also keep version history clear so auditors and controllers know which file is final.
Strong PBC management supports audit readiness and improves internal controls because documentation, ownership, approval evidence, and financial schedules are organized before auditors ask follow-up questions. This improves reporting confidence, operational efficiency, and management visibility into audit progress.
Summary
Prepared By Client Requests are auditor-requested files and explanations that the company prepares to support financial statement testing, control testing, disclosures, and audit conclusions. They include reconciliations, schedules, reports, contracts, approvals, system evidence, and management explanations. For finance leaders, strong PBC management improves audit readiness, financial reporting quality, cash flow visibility, and confidence in business performance.
