INDEPENDENT AUDIT SERVICES

We have provided independent audit services to the greater non-profit community in California since 1996. We are qualified to complete audits under generally accepted auditing standards, yellow book (government auditing) standards and OMB A-133 (Federal audits). We received an unqualified peer review report in 2011 (with no letter of comments). Our current and past clients include the following types of organizations:
 

• Community Based Organizations
• Charities
• Trade Associations
• Labor Unions
• High Schools
• Colleges
• Pension Plans
• Governmentally funded entities

HOW WE AUDIT

If you talk to many a veteran CPA and the discussion turns to “auditing,” you will invariably hear the phrase “I @#$% hate auditing!” Many CPA’s were introduced to auditing by having to manually add (with a ten key) hundreds of mind numbing utility billing statements; or review dozens of complex payroll transaction receipts. If, after doing that work, your mind hadn’t turned to mush, you weren’t human.

Well, we don’t audit like that.

Our basic approach is to learn all we can about your organization – what you do and how you do it; how your financial position and results from operations compare to your budget and to prior year; what actions your board took (or didn’t take) during the year. We talk to board members, management and line employees. The first days of our audit don’t really look like an audit at all – we spend most of the time talking to people and reading documents. Only after all this information gathering and synthesis do we determine our audit procedures (i.e. what we are going to look at).

During an audit, we are only able to look at a sample of transactions, so they really need to count! Do we look at the big stuff? Yes, but not exclusively. We are often interested in new or rapidly growing programs, legal bills, cash transactions, electronic disbursements and other items that suggest a higher risk of fraud or misstatement of the financial statements.

The important point is that we don’t pre-judge your audit. We determine what to spend time on based on the results of our initial procedures as well as the further audit procedures. This means you get a fresh look at your operation every year.

Really this is nothing more than common sense. An audit is largely a matter of becoming familiar with the design and operation of the accounting system and becoming satisfied with the propriety of various account balances. We believe our approach efficiently accommodates those tasks.

PEER REVIEW

In accordance with AICPA requirements we undergo a peer review of our audit and accounting practice every three years. Click here for a copy of our August 2011 peer review report. The report is unmodified and there was no letter of comments issued in connection with the review.
 

AUDIT FEES

Fees are based on the number of hours expected to complete the audit at our standard hourly rates – currently $60-$150 per hour. Since we have completed hundreds of audits of non-profits over the past two decades we know about how long most audits should take. We can give you a written fee estimate after reviewing your prior year financial statements and asking a few questions. So ask us – you will probably find our fees very competitive.
 

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