Looking to Borrow? An Audited Financial Statement Can Help Paying for audited financials may help you get credit and reduce interest rates.

More than one-half of all small-business loan applications are being rejected by banks, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index. In such a tough lending environment, companies in need of capital might find lenders more receptive if they invest in audited financial statements.

"We've had clients who needed these statements to even get the loan, and it can make a difference in the interest rate you get," says David G. Barbeito, a principal in the Miami office of Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, a large independent accounting firm.

A study by Michael Minnis, assistant professor of accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, published in the Journal of Accounting Research found that companies with audited financial statements have interest rates that are nearly three-quarters of a percent lower than companies that do not. In general, large companies are more likely to require audits in order to receive loans; however, Minnis found that firms with annual revenue of $10 million were not always asked to supply such materials, while firms in the $500,000 range sometimes were.