I suggest you look at the tier two firms- eg, BDO, Grant Thornton,... They are very capable, provide excellent service, don't have the staff turnover of the big firms (the big firms will cycle new staff through their smaller clients for training - you end up paying for their training), and their fees are more reasonable. As noted above, having a clear description of the work scope and expectations is also a great place to start.

Typically I develop the requirements; what is mandatory that you need from the vendor, what is a nice to have etc. Then I develop a short RFP along with the requirements and pick the top in the financial services industry, the top regional, regulated finance services experience etc and make some calls to, we want to make sure we have enough people that will review our requirements. Also, if the budget is too small, usually the big guys or the best folks have no interest. In the RFP you may want to think about what other services you could use from them in addition to audit as that will get their attention. Then I develop a score card, facilitate with the board on what is important to them in the selection of this particular vendor on a scale of 1-10. It saves a ton of time from the board going round and round. within an hour, I usually have the top 10 criteria that you would choose this vendor agreed to. From there we usually go away and review the various Responses and grade them and then put them on the score card and calculate the numerical winner, it takes all the emotional stuff out of it.

If you have any other questions please advise. Also, best to text me that you have a question I need to answer my email fills up.

Thank you

Lorraine