Companies will have to provide greater evidence that they have sufficient financing for business activities in 2008 if they want a clean bill of health from auditors.

Auditors have warned that they will apply extra scrutiny of a company's viability, including its access to credit for the coming year. The tougher scrutiny is a sign that the credit crunch is spreading beyond the financial sector. "Many of the normal assumptions can't be taken for granted so while we always tested them, this year needs particularly high levels of challenges - we are in a new world," said Martyn Jones, UK national audit technical partner at Deloitte.