Of the 52 companies surveyed, 82 percent cited range of services as coming second in the list of reasons for going to tender, followed by quality (74 percent) and industry specific experience (65 percent).

The services that respondents expected auditors to provider were, in order of importance: business planning, profit improvement, wealth protection, tax mitigation, raising finance, shareholder/proprietor issues, family business dynamics, M&As and disposals, retirement planning, and tax and audit compliance.

Unsurprisingly, cost was the most important factor for 90 percent of companies responding to the survey, which was conducted by consultancy firm Kato.

Of the 37 companies that changed their auditors following the tender process, seven went to the Big Five and the rest to other firms evenly split between the second tier and smaller independent firms.

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