We do not do official “Audits of Financial Statements.”  However, we do both “Reviews of Financial Statements” and “Agreed Upon Procedures.”  An “Audit” is a technical term in the public accounting field for the most extensive assurance engagement. Audits normally run in the thousands of dollars even for small businesses and non-profits. Audits of larger firms can be much more than that.  In many cases, when someone asks for an audit, a “Review” or an “Agreed Upon Procedures” would suit their purposes.  Being a smaller accounting office, it is not worth it for us to maintain the “peer review” necessary to perform full-scale audits.

As stated above, we do offer “Reviews of Financial Statements” as well as “Agreed-Upon Procedures.”  Reviews are less in scope than an audit.  In the case of a review, we look at bank reconciliations, financial ratios, compare to prior year(s) information, and talk to key personnel.  We may have to do more procedures when questions arise.  While it is less in scope than an audit, some governing bodies will accept a financial statement review in lieu of a full-scale audit.  In a review engagement, we offer “limited assurance” on the financial statements.

Agreed Upon Procedures are exactly what they sound like.  They are procedures agreed upon between us and the business or non-profit to suit their purposes.  Instead of providing limited assurance on the overall financial statements, we agree with clients on specific procedures that they believe will fit their needs.  In turn, we will simply report our findings based upon the procedures that the client and us agreed upon.

Again, if you think you want your books “audited,” but might not need a full scale audit, then please give us a call.