Why is the audit fee sometimes higher than a whole year of bookkeeping?
Because the two prices are built differently: bookkeeping is a monthly fee driven by document volume, while the audit is one annual project priced on revenue and risk, signed by a CPA whose personal licence is on the line. For a small company with tidy books, a year of cheap bookkeeping genuinely can total less than the one audit invoice, and that alone does not mean either number is wrong.
Last reviewed 12 October 2026
What the audit fee is actually buying
- A signature with liability attached. The report carries a named CPA’s licence number. If the opinion is wrong, the auditor answers for it personally to the regulator, which is a risk premium no bookkeeping fee contains.
- Work that happens whether or not you traded much. Confirmations, bank reconciliation checks, the statutory file, the report itself: a fixed floor of procedures exists at any size, which is why even a dormant company’s audit costs real money.
- A deadline everyone shares. Most Thai companies close on 31 December, so the entire profession’s audit work lands between January and April. Some firms publish rush surcharges for files that arrive late in that window.
How the number is set
Thai audit firms that publish prices band them on annual revenue, not on hours. The audit cost page collects the published tables: dormant companies at roughly 4,000 to 7,000 baht, most SMEs between 10,000 and 30,000 baht, and re-quoting above 30 to 50 million baht of turnover.
When the comparison should worry you
The ratio itself is not a warning sign. What is worth examining is an audit fee far above the published bands for your revenue, with no explanation. The honest reasons a fee runs high: the books arrive messy and the auditor is effectively re-doing bookkeeping first, there is inventory to observe or a group reporting pack on top of the Thai statements, or the file arrived in March for an April deadline.
Also check the opposite trap: what your bookkeeping fee includes. The monthly fee almost never includes the audit, so the right comparison is monthly fee times twelve, plus the audit, plus the annual filings, against someone else’s same full-year total. Three audit quotes on your actual revenue settle in a week what guessing never will.
Related questions
- Does a Thai company with zero revenue still need an audit?
- What is actually included in a Thai bookkeeping fee, and what almost never is?
- What does the auditor need from me, and when?
Sources
- Cross-Check, published audit fee table by revenue band (Thai)
- JPT Accounting, published audit fees including dormant accounts (Thai)
This is general information about how a filing works, not accounting or tax advice for your company. Confirm anything that matters against the official notice or with your accountant. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.