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Please click on a link below to view a detailed description
of the service.
Accounting, bookkeeping and payroll
assistance
Accounting research
Agreed-upon procedures engagements
Attest services
Audits
Compilations
Compliance audits and attestation
Forecasts and projections
Fraud investigations
Internal audits
Internal control evaluation
Operational audit
Peer reviews
Personal financial statements
Reviews
Training of personnel
Accounting services include assistance to supplement your current in-house
expertise. Our complete bookkeeping and payroll services for small to
medium-sized organizations include, but are not limited to monthly, quarterly
or annual bookkeeping (data entry, journal entries, reconciliation's,
etc.), business property tax statements, sales tax returns and payroll
returns.
Benefits
- Relatively inexpensive.
- Flexibility allows integration.
with your current accounting staff
Investigate the options available for the recognition, measurement or
reporting of a transaction. Procedures can include consultation with
authoritative reference sources (such as generally accepted accounting
principles) or authoritative bodies responsible for establishing accounting
requirements (FASB, GASB, industry groups, etc.)
Benefits
- Assess the impact of a transaction.
- Anticipate the effect of a transaction on financial statement presentation
or disclosure.
An engagement where the firm issues a report on findings based on the
performance of specific procedures that are agreed to by the accountant
and. The scope of procedures can vary widely based on the your needs
and what you believe is appropriate.
Benefits
- Flexible procedures can reduce costs.
- Procedures can be of a narrow focus.
An engagement where a CPA is engaged to issue a written communication
that expresses a conclusion about the reliability of a written assurance
that is the responsibility of another party.
Benefits
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
An audit is an engagement where a CPA provides an opinion about the fairness
of a financial statement presentation in accordance with a comprehensive
basis of accounting such as: generally accepted accounting principles,
cash basis or income tax basis.
Benefits
- Provides the highest level of financial statement assurance.
- As a by-product of an audit, the firm may also observe opportunities
for management to improve its operations, although this is
not the primary intent of the engagement.
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
A compilation is a service where the accountant presents, in the form of
financial statements, information that is the representation of an organization's
management (owners) without undertaking to express assurance on the financial
statements. At management's election, the financial statements may be prepared
with substantially all disclosures omitted. Common financial statement bases
of accounting used for compilations include accrual basis, cash basis and income
tax basis.
Benefits
- Accountants' report is issued, but provides no financial statement
assurance.
- Least expensive of the financial statement reporting services.
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
This service results in the issuance of a report on an organization's
compliance with requirements of specified laws, regulations, rules, contracts
or grant. It can also include reporting on the effectiveness of an entity's
internal control over compliance requirements. Compliance requirements
may be financial or non-financial in nature. A common example is a single
audit of an organization's compliance with laws and regulations under
Government Auditing Standards. Another is an entity's compliance with
provisions of an agreement or contract.
Benefits
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
- Identifies weaknesses in internal control.
An engagement that presents prospective information in the form of financial
statements. A forecast is a prospective financial statement based on
assumptions that are believed to be the most likely to occur. A projection,
on the other hand, is prospective information that is based on a "what-if" scenario,
but not necessarily the most likely scenario. Different levels of reporting
assurance are available for each form of information. An accountant may
either examine (basically audit-level assurance), compile, or apply agreed-upon
procedures to prospective financial statements. The review level of assurance
is not available for prospective financial statements.
Benefits
- Signals to management that corrective actions may be needed in some
aspect of the operations.
- Provides a financial snapshot of the organization under certain assumptions.
- Establishes financial targets.
- Increases accountability.
- Satisfies external reporting requirements.
This service includes investigation of alleged fraudulent activities
as well as assessing your company's current risk. We believe the best
deterrent to fraud is a system of strong controls combined with education
about identifying the warning signs of fraud. Since many of the controls
that deter fraud can also help prevent unintentional errors, a fraud
assessment engagement is a particularly valuable one.
Benefits
- Suggest ideas for deterring fraud.
- Investigate allegations of fraud.
These engagements encompass the performance of procedures that
are normally designed to focus on areas of internal control in more depth
than would be expected in a financial statement audit. The scope of the
engagement can narrow or broad in scope.
Benefits
- Flexible scope defined by the organization.
- Procedures can be performed over time.
A service ranging from fine-tuning a specific part of your operations to
a thorough evaluation of your system's overall design and operating effectiveness.
An organization's system of internal control includes five components: 1) the
control environment, 2) assessment of risk, 3) control activities, 4) information
processing, and 5) monitoring. Most organizations have both formal and informal
activities within these five areas.
Benefits
- Identify weaknesses in internal control.
- Identify opportunities for operational efficiencies.
- Can provide peace of mind about operations.
The objective of an operational audit is to evaluate and recommend improvements
in:
- Overall operations,
- A segment of operations, or
- Specific processes within a segment.
In a typical engagement, which is more than just looking
at the financial picture, we start by helping you define your desired
state of operations (i.e., where would you like to be.) Then we assess
the current conditions (i.e., where are you now). Through an interactive
process, we help generate ideas for improvements, evaluate the best solutions
and provide you with support during implementation of the solutions.
To the extent a particular solution requires new training, we can help
with that training or offer recommendations for other qualified trainers.
Benefits
- Generate ideas for process improvements.
- Evaluate alternative process solutions.
- Offer an objective, outside view of operations.
- Reduce expenses.
A peer review is an engagement where one CPA firm expresses assurance
about whether another CPA firm's system of quality control over its accounting
and auditing practice meets the requirements of professional standards.
This assurance may be in the form of an opinion on the firm's system
of quality control (an on-site review) or a report of limited assurance
on selected engagements submitted for review (an off-site review.) On-site
reviews apply to CPA firms who perform audits. Off-site reviews apply
to firms who perform only reviews or compilations.
Benefits
- Satisfy external reporting requirements (AICPA).
- Improve system of quality control.
Sometimes called a statement of net worth, these are financial statements
of an individual and/or spouse. The financial statements are prepared
using the fair market values of the individual's assets and liabilities.
Personal financial statements may be audited, reviewed or compiled. Common
uses of personal financial statements include arranging for financing
or in estate tax planning.
Benefits
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
- Assist in obtaining financing.
- Improve financial planning ability.
A review is a "procedures-driven" engagement where an accountant
expresses "limited assurance" (but not an opinion) about financial
statements. In expressing limited assurance, an accountant states whether
or not the financial statements contain material modifications that should
be made in order for them to be in conformity with a basis of accounting,
for example, generally accepted accounting principles. In a review engagement,
the accountant performs analytical procedures and inquiries of entity
management to obtain a reasonable basis for the limited assurance.
Benefits
- Accountants' report is issued.
- Provides a limited level of financial statement assurance.
- As a by-product, the firm may observe opportunities for
management to improve its operations, although this is not
the intent of the engagement.
- Cost is less than an audit.
- Satisfy external reporting requirements.
General training or supervision of your accounting or finance staff.
Training can relate to specific accounting functions, preparation of
financial statements, software training.
Benefits
- Reduce on-the-job training time.
- Provide efficiency tips related to specific software programs.
- Mentor and train personnel for advancement.
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