How much does a financial statement audit cost in Ukraine: price factors

The cost of a financial statement audit in Ukraine is not regulated by the state. There are no official rates: the price is built as a budget of team hours for a specific scope of procedures. The only publicly verifiable guide to price levels is public procurement. On Prozorro, Ukraine's public procurement system, the expected value of audit services for annual financial statements ranges from UAH 80,000 for a small municipal buyer to UAH 9,000,000 for a multi-year engagement at a large financial institution. The actual figure depends on measurable factors, set out below.

Why audit firms in Ukraine do not publish price lists

Because whether an audit is mandatory is tightly regulated, while pricing is not regulated at all. The law sets no tariffs or minimum rates. Instead, it requires audit services to be provided only under a contract that sets out the subject, the scope of audit services, the amount and terms of payment and the parties' liability (Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Audit of Financial Statements and Auditing Activity" of 21 December 2017 No. 2258-VIII). The state fixes the structure of the agreement and leaves the amount to the parties. The result is an information gap: most firms simply say "price by agreement". That reflects how the service works: an audit is sold as a budget of qualified people's time, and that budget cannot be set before the auditor understands the client's business.

How an audit budget is actually calculated

The price of an audit is the scope of work multiplied by the hourly rate, taking team composition into account: hours per stage × hourly rate for each level of staff (partner, manager, senior auditor, assistant), plus direct costs (travel, external experts, IT auditors) and regulatory charges. Partner and manager hours are the most expensive, and they grow fastest wherever complex judgements come in: impairment of assets, fair value, going concern. That is why two proposals with the same total can mean very different amounts of work: it all depends on how many hours, and at what level, are built into the estimate.

Eight price factors and the rules behind them

Every cost factor has a source in regulation: the price reflects the scope of work the standards require.

Why auditing a group of five entities does not cost five times as much

Because the price of a group audit is not the sum of five separate audits. Some procedures are done once at group level (understanding the environment, IT controls, accounting policies), and some are added on top of the individual audits: scoping of components, elimination of intra-group transactions, consolidation adjustments and communication with component auditors under ISA 600 (Revised). The result is a group price below the arithmetic sum, yet several times higher than the audit of the largest entity. For consolidated financial statements, preparing financial statements under IFRS is priced separately.

State of the accounts: why it is a pre-contract question

The state of the accounting records becomes clear at the client acceptance stage, and it is the factor that most often moves the budget. If primary documents are incomplete, ledgers are not reconciled and balances are not supported, the auditor cannot obtain evidence. The engagement is then either declined or accepted after restoring the accounting records as a separate stage. There is an independence point too: the same team cannot restore the accounts and then audit its own work.

Regulatory charges built into the contract price

Part of the cost of an audit consists of charges set by law. An audit firm pays the Audit Public Oversight Body of Ukraine (Орган суспільного нагляду за аудиторською діяльністю) a contribution of 1% of the fees under mandatory audit contracts, excluding VAT (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 557 of 2 June 2023); the statutory cap under Article 15(14) of Law No. 2258-VIII is 2%.

On top of that, a fixed contribution is paid for each auditor's report: three minimum monthly wages, as set by law on 1 January of the reporting year, for a report on a mandatory audit of a public-interest entity, and 0.3 of the minimum wage for a report on any other mandatory audit (Article 15(14) of Law No. 2258-VIII). From 1 January 2026 the minimum wage is UAH 8,647 (Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2026" of 3 December 2025 No. 4695-IX), which gives UAH 25,941 and about UAH 2,594 respectively.

The third element is third-party liability insurance for firms that carry out mandatory audits of public-interest entities: the minimum sum insured is 10% of the fees under such contracts for the previous year, and at least UAH 10 million (Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 168 of 20 December 2023). The fourth is the cost of the quality management system: ISQM 1 replaced ISQC 1 and took effect on 15 December 2022, requiring a risk-based system with periodic evaluation of how well it works. Together these components explain why there is a price floor in the PIE segment.

What open data shows: Prozorro tenders

The figures below come from the open register of public procurement. They are not our firm's prices. Prozorro is useful because it shows the expected value announced by the buyer itself, free of marketing figures.

Expected value of audit tenders on Prozorro

What this tells us. First, the more than hundredfold spread comes from the buyer's size and the list of engagements: at the low end it is a single audit of a small municipal enterprise, at the top a two-year IFRS audit plus reviews of interim statements and other required engagements. Second, the expected value is the ceiling of the tender: the actual contract price after a competitive procedure is usually lower. Third, the Boryspil example shows the other side: if the buyer's budget does not cover the real scope of procedures, the tender may fail.

Three different engagements that are often confused

These are three separate pieces of work with different prices: converting financial statements to IFRS (done by an accountant or consultant, never by the engagement auditor), auditing financial statements prepared under IFRS, and preparing and filing financial statements in iXBRL format using the UA XBRL IFRS taxonomy through the Financial Reporting System (the Financial Reporting Collection Centre). The duty to prepare and file financial statements under international standards on the basis of the taxonomy in a single electronic format is set by Article 11(6) and Article 12-1(5) of Law No. 996-XIV. Mapping is not part of the audit fee; it is a separate line in the proposal. Which engagement you need is decided by an initial scoping of the financial statement audit engagement.

The calendar: why a rushed audit costs more

The reason is that the deadlines are the same for the whole market and do not move. Public-interest entities (other than large companies that are not issuers of securities), public joint-stock companies, natural monopolies in the national market and businesses in the extractive industries must publish their annual financial statements together with the auditor's report no later than 30 April of the year following the reporting year. Large companies that are not issuers of securities, medium-sized companies and parent companies of a large group must do so no later than 1 June (Article 14(3) of Law No. 996-XIV). A separate deadline applies for tax purposes: profit tax payers that are required to publish their financial statements with an auditor's report must file those statements with the tax authority no later than 10 June of the year following the reporting year (clause 46.2 of Article 46 of the Tax Code of Ukraine). The published set must stay on the company's website for at least six years (Article 14(7) of Law No. 996-XIV).

As a result, the working season is squeezed into February to May, and a firm's capacity in those months is limited by the number of qualified staff. A client who comes to the project in April pays for the team's overtime and the risk of compressed planning. Starting in October to December allows procedures to be split between the periods before and after the reporting date.

At the same time, the Law of Ukraine "On Protecting the Interests of Reporting Entities and Other Documents During Martial Law or a State of War" of 3 March 2022 No. 2115-IX allows the relevant documents to be filed within three months after martial law ends or is lifted, with no administrative liability for doing so. The duty to have an audit has not gone away: deferred obligations are piling up and will create a spike in demand.

The structure of an audit contract and what the price covers

The minimum set of essential terms is set by law, and the content of the engagement by the standards. Article 7 of Law No. 2258-VIII requires the contract to set out the subject, the scope of audit services, the amount and terms of payment and the parties' liability; ISA 210 adds the preconditions for accepting the engagement, the financial reporting framework, management's responsibilities, access to information and how the terms can be changed.

Stages that the scope and payments can sensibly be tied to: (1) client acceptance procedures and independence checks; (2) understanding the business; (3) planning, materiality and risk assessment; (4) performing audit procedures; (5) attending the stock count; (6) preparing and issuing the auditor's report. Items usually left outside the base price include IFRS conversion, consolidation, iXBRL mapping, restoring the accounts, travel to additional locations, repeat procedures caused by changes in the data provided, and stand-alone engagements such as a tax audit or due diligence.

Checklist for reviewing an audit proposal

• The provider is listed in the right section of the Register of Auditors and Audit Firms, held and administered by the Audit Public Oversight Body of Ukraine. You can check this publicly at register.apob.org.ua. Audits of public-interest entities require a separate, narrower section of the Register (Article 6(1) and Article 21(1) of Law No. 2258-VIII).
• There is a valid liability insurance policy (for PIE audits, at least UAH 10 million).
• A quality management system under ISQM 1 is in place.
• The proposal shows the team composition and the hours budget by stage, as well as the total.
• What is excluded from the price is listed explicitly: IFRS conversion, consolidation, iXBRL, travel, restoring the accounts.
• For PIEs, rotation under Article 30 of Law No. 2258-VIII is taken into account: one audit firm may audit the same entity for no more than 10 consecutive years, and the key audit partner must step down after 7 years at the latest, so the "expensive first year" comes round again in cycles.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a financial statement audit cost in Ukraine in 2026?

There are no state tariffs, so the only publicly verifiable guide is open procurement data. On Prozorro, the expected value of an audit of annual financial statements was UAH 80,000 for a small municipal buyer, UAH 90,000 for the Besarabskyi Market municipal enterprise for 2025, and UAH 9,000,000 for a multi-year audit and review engagement at a large financial institution. The actual amount is set by the hours budget once the auditor has looked at the accounts.

Why does the first year of an audit cost more than later years?

Because ISA 510 requires the auditor to obtain sufficient evidence on opening balances they have not audited before, a separate body of procedures that a recurring engagement does not have. In the second and third years the hours budget usually goes down if the structure of transactions has not changed.

Is IFRS conversion included in the audit fee?

No, it is a separate engagement: conversion is done by an accountant or consultant, while the audit of statements already prepared under IFRS is priced on its own. Preparing statements in iXBRL format using the UA XBRL IFRS taxonomy is a third, separate piece of work.

Why is a PIE audit so much more expensive?

Because fewer firms can do it and regulatory costs are built in: only firms in a separate section of the Register may carry out such audits, the minimum sum insured under the liability policy is UAH 10 million, and the fixed contribution is UAH 25,941 per report in 2026. Mandatory IFRS, restrictions on non-audit services and rotation add to this.

Can you order a cheaper audit, and what do you give up?

A much lower price almost always means a smaller hours budget, and therefore smaller samples, fewer substantive procedures, no attendance at the stock count and a more junior team. The right way to compare proposals is to set the lists of procedures and the hours budgets side by side.

Why does the number of warehouses affect the audit price?

Because ISA 501 requires the auditor to attend the physical inventory count where inventory is material to the financial statements, and counts at all locations usually take place at the same time, typically on 31 December. Hence parallel teams, travel and extra hours.

If you would like an estimate of the scope of the engagement for your own structure, based on your company's size category, number of legal entities and locations and financial reporting framework, ask us for a consultation. We will go through your inputs and show you what the hours budget will be made up of.