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When you own your own business it is important to enlist the help of an accountant in order to provide audit services. This is because it provides documentation that you are dealing with the financial aspect of your business in the correct way and can be used as evidence if any issues arise.

Some people don’t even know what audit services so they don’t bother using them. However, once you understand it is very easy and can be very beneficial to your company.

An audit is an independent check of a company’s financial statements which is carried out by an outside company who has nothing to do with the business. It ensures that the company being audited is presenting a true, fair and accurate view of its financial position.

Audit services can also review a company’s systems and analyse risks. This means that you will be made aware of any risks you may face so you can be prepared for them if they ever happen. It can also monitor how your systems are performing in order to ensure that you are getting the most out of what you are using.

When using audit services they can also perform tests to check financial information and systems. Again, this is in order to ensure that you are getting the most out of what you are using and that it is being beneficial to your company.

One of the most important parts of audit services is that once they have been completed, the accountant you are using can then advise you on areas you can improve in. For example, they may offer tips to make certain jobs easier and quicker which will save you time and money in the long run.

Audit services can also include an examination of whether you are or not complying with the relevant terms, laws and regulations. Although this sounds daunting it is very important and beneficial in the long run because it is better than doing something wrong and then getting penalised for it later.

With so many advantages of audit services it is not surprising that so many companies large or small hire an accountant to conduct them for their business. You can be reassured that the financial aspect of your business is in safe hands and you will be given quality advice. This will make the running of any business a lot smoother and easier.

At Wilkins Kennedy http://www.wilkinskennedy.com we provide a vast range of professional advisory services to the main, owner managed businesses. These include but are not limited to audit, accountancy and taxation advice.

The following item was reported in a recent American Institute of Certified Public Accountants communication:

“The Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS had posted on the IRS web site a controversial document setting forth the Service’s view on what constitutes good governance practices for tax-exempt entities. Included in the document was the suggestion that audit firms be rotated on a regular basis, with five years as the suggested term. The Institute protested the inclusion of this item in face-to-face meetings and in writing. Last month, the IRS dropped the document from its website, explaining that the new Form 990 sets forth the IRS’ current position on good governance practices which do not include the five-year rotation suggestion. ”

This is another sad example of a professional organization placing the good of its members over the public interest. The Institute has a long history of this type of advocacy. Why would the IRS recommended a five year audit rotation as a good governance practice for non profit organizations?

Audit rotation is designed to overcome two problems that can occur if an organization hires the same audit firm year in and year out. The first problem is that there is a tendency for audit firms to get too cozy with the management of the organizations they are assigned to audit. Personal and professional ties can easily impede auditor independence. Secondly, audit rotation provides the opportunity for the organization to be examined with a fresh pair of eyes.

This second issue is subtle. Accountants are creatures of habit and checklists. Things are done the same way as they were last year and often in a very mechanical and non critical manner. Many audit procedures and tests are numbingly mechanical and clerical and it is very easy to not view the audit process from a sufficiently critical and analytical point of view. Sometimes the most glaring internal control weaknesses can be overlooked simply because the auditors were not looking at the big picture but only concentrating on the minutia. A change in auditors guarantees that the organization in its entirety will get a fresh look and glaring internal control problems that may have been overlooked by the prior auditor may get picked up by the new one.

Of course CPA firms with long standing engagements with non profit organizations do not want to give up them up for obvious financial reasons. So these firms use their professional association, the Institute, to advocate against the obvious good governance practice that is clearly in the public interest. Such cynicism is sadly the rule not the exception for most professional organizations.

The IRS also should share some of the blame for caving into the audit firms on this issue. But it probably was not the IRS staff that caved but the higher ups who were pressured from the Bush administration. Whenever there is a divergence between private sector interests and the public interest you can pretty much count on the Bush administration siding with the private interests.

In any event the IRS had the right idea to begin with. Non profits should rotate their audit firms on a regular basis.

Michael Sack Elmaleh is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Valuation Analyst. His book, “Financial Accounting: A Mercifully Brief Introduction”, has received wide critical acclaim. He has nearly 30 years of accounting and teaching experience.

http://www.understand-accounting.net

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