Winning audit engagements: tenders, referrals and expertise that becomes visible

How audit engagements come about

For a tax practice, a good Google profile can be enough to bring in a steady stream of enquiries. For an audit firm, that hardly works. Choosing an auditor is rarely a decision made by one person: shareholders, the supervisory board or the association's board are involved, often with a formal resolution or a procurement procedure. The routes to new engagements therefore differ markedly from other firms:

The last route will stay smaller than in other professions, but should not be underestimated: questions such as “Vereinsprüfung Kosten” (cost of an association audit) or “Jahresabschlussprüfung GmbH Pflicht” (is an audit mandatory for a GmbH) are googled. How to be found for them is explained in SEO for audit firms.

Tenders: municipalities, public enterprises, associations

Public contracting authorities must award audit services under procurement law. In Austria, the Federal Procurement Act 2018 (BVergG 2018) applies; in Germany, above the EU thresholds, the GWB together with the Procurement Regulation (VgV), and below them, depending on the federal state, the sub-threshold procurement rules (UVgO) or state law. This affects municipalities, municipal associations and companies majority-owned by the public sector. In Germany, such companies often also require the extended audit under § 53 HGrG, which you then need to be able to offer.

For public-interest entities, Art. 16 of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 sets out a separate selection procedure: following a transparent procedure, the audit committee recommends at least two candidates, and smaller audit firms may not be excluded from the outset. Because the maximum duration of an audit engagement with these entities is limited (Art. 17), engagements come onto the market regularly. Associations and private companies are not bound by procurement law but often obtain several offers, particularly large associations that in Austria must appoint an auditor under § 22(2) VerG.

Referrals from tax advisers, banks and lawyers

For medium-sized companies, the auditor's name usually comes from outside: the tax adviser who prepares the financial statements may not audit them herself and is asked whom she recommends. The bank requires audited statements for a loan. The lawyer advising on an acquisition is looking for someone for the due diligence. These multipliers only recommend people they trust, and they look at your website before passing on your name.

• Be visible where multipliers are: chamber and professional association events, bank evenings, regional business meetings.
• Report back reliably: referrers want to know that someone took care of things. A brief thank-you is allowed, details of the engagement only with the client's consent.
• No commissions: you may neither pay nor accept money for referring engagements (§ 84 WTBG 2017, § 55(2) WPO). This also applies to vouchers or “referral bonuses”.
• Reciprocity without strings: you can recommend tax practices you have had good experiences with. An arrangement of the kind “you recommend us for the audit, we send you the tax work” is, by contrast, delicate.

How to encourage referrals without incentives is described in more detail in Referrals for firms.

Industry focus instead of a general store

A small audit firm cannot be the first choice for every industry, but it can be for two or three. Anyone who regularly audits property developers, hotels, care homes, cooperatives or charities knows their risks, valuation issues and special rules. This knowledge is the strongest argument towards a supervisory board or contracting authority, and it is easy to show: with dedicated industry pages on the website, with talks at trade associations and with articles on the topics that preoccupy exactly these companies right now.

What matters is that the focus is real. “Focus on association audits” presupposes that you actually audit associations regularly; otherwise the statement is misleading. In Germany, the professional statute WP/vBP expressly allows auditors to state areas of focus for sub-fields. How to present industries and services on your website is shown in The website of an audit firm.

Talks, articles and LinkedIn

Thought leadership sounds grand but is simple at its core: you explain the technical questions that preoccupy your future clients, clearly and regularly. Suitable topics for auditors include new size classes and their consequences for the audit obligation, the postponement of sustainability reporting, audits of associations and tax deductibility of donations, or typical findings when auditing grant claims.

• Talks at the Chamber of Commerce (Wirtschaftskammer or IHK), banks, trade associations and umbrella organisations for associations reach exactly the decision-makers who select auditors.
• Articles in trade media and chamber journals have a long shelf life. Label paid articles as advertising.
• LinkedIn is the channel where CFOs and supervisory board members read. Partners' personal profiles have more impact than the company page. Tips are in LinkedIn for firms.
• Your own website is where everything comes together: every talk and every article gets a page there that you link to. How this works is explained in Expert articles on the firm website.

Independence and fees: what marketing may not do

Auditors have more rules to observe than other firms, and many of them directly affect business development. The most important at a glance:

For public-interest entities, further limits apply: many non-audit services are prohibited (Art. 5 Regulation (EU) No 537/2014), and fees for permitted non-audit services are capped at 70% of the average audit fees of the last three years (Art. 4). The details on advertising and direct marketing are in Advertising rules for auditors in Austria and in Germany.

The website as a credibility check

With every tender and every referral comes the moment when someone types in your name. The contracting authority checks whether you really exist and who is behind the firm. The supervisory board member wants to know whether you have experience with companies of this size. The bank adviser wants to be sure she is not recommending someone to her client who looks unprofessional. At that moment, your website decides whether trust grows or shrinks.

Also check how your firm appears in search results and AI answers: with the Google preview for title and description, and the AI preview for what an assistant says about you.