If you perform work in accordance with government auditing standards, your reviewer must have experience in this area. You should identify the people assigned to the review team and inquire about their review experience. It is important to check the qualifications of the specific individuals rather than just relying on the firm's general reputation. You may want to ask each firm for references from firms the size of your practice that they have reviewed. Call these other firms to discuss their experiences, and ask whether they received helpful insights from their reviewers and whether they considered the reviewers to be knowledgeable, efficient, and fair.
Many firms consider an informal exchange of ideas to be a major benefit of a review.
So inquire whether the candidates were helpful in sharing ideas from their own practices. After you have determined that a firm is qualified, you should discuss the fee you will be charged. If the review is to be on a fixed-fee basis, determine if there are any contingencies. If it is to be on an hourly basis, obtain a budget reflecting the rates that will be charged. To enable the reviewers to provide you with an accurate budget, you will need to give them sufficient information about your firm.