01
Scoping and covenant read
Before the engagement letter
We read the agreement that created the requirement and confirm the level of assurance it actually calls for.
Home / Services / Accounting / Audits & reviews
Accounting · Specialization
Assurance, scoped to
Assurance, scoped to
what the reader actually needs.
Financial statement engagements for lenders, investors, bonding agents and grantors, at the level of assurance your reader requires, not the most expensive one available.
At a glance
Audit, review and compilation engagements for privately held companies, employee benefit plans and nonprofit organizations, performed under AICPA standards and subject to external peer review.
Who this suits
- Companies whose loan agreement requires audited or reviewed statements
- Businesses raising outside capital for the first time
- Contractors who need statements a bonding agent will accept
- Nonprofits above the Massachusetts audit threshold
- Plan sponsors with a large employee benefit plan filing requirement
The first question is which level of assurance you are actually required to provide.
Companies routinely buy an audit when the loan agreement asks for a review, and a review when a compilation would satisfy every reader of the statements. The difference in fee is substantial, and nobody has an incentive to point it out. We read the covenant before we quote.
Where an audit genuinely is required, the experience is mostly determined by planning. We agree the timetable and the request list months ahead, do the risk assessment early, and ask for documents once rather than in a rolling stream that consumes your controller for six weeks.
You get the same team back the following year. The second audit is materially less disruptive than the first for exactly that reason: nobody is relearning your revenue recognition or rediscovering why the inventory reserve is calculated the way it is.
Independence rules mean we cannot both audit a company and keep its books. Where you need both, we will say so plainly at the outset and help you structure it properly rather than discovering the conflict halfway through.
Deliverables
Three levels,
Three levels,
honestly recommended.
We will tell you when a cheaper level of service satisfies your requirement. That conversation happens before the engagement letter.
Audit
The highest level of assurance, with substantive testing and an opinion. Required by most institutional lenders, investors and larger grantors.
Review
Limited assurance through analytical procedures and inquiry. Satisfies a large share of bank covenants at a fraction of an audit fee.
Compilation
Statements presented in proper form without assurance, often sufficient for a smaller credit facility or an internal reader.
Employee benefit plan audits
Form 5500 audits for plans over the participant threshold, run to a calendar that does not collide with your year-end.
Nonprofit engagements
Statements under the nonprofit reporting framework, including functional expense allocation and single audit coordination where applicable.
Agreed-upon procedures
Targeted testing where a reader needs comfort on one specific thing rather than on the statements as a whole.
How it runs
Planned early,
Planned early,
so fieldwork is short.
A well-planned audit is a short interruption. A poorly planned one occupies your finance team for a quarter.
02
Planning and risk assessment
Two to three months out
Timetable agreed, request list issued once and in full, and the significant risks identified before anyone arrives on site.
03
Fieldwork
A defined window
A named team with continuity year over year. Open items are tracked on a shared list so nobody is guessing what is outstanding.
04
Report and management letter
To an agreed date
Statements and opinion issued on schedule, plus a management letter that identifies control weaknesses in language your board can act on.
Related
More in Accounting
These sit next to each other for a reason: most engagements draw on two or three of them at once.
Accounting overview
Outsourced AccountingFull-cycle bookkeeping, month-end close, reconciliations, AP and AR workflow, reporting packages.
Controller & CFO ServicesFractional finance leadership, budgets and forecasts, KPI reporting, lender and board packages.
Payroll & Contractor ComplianceMulti-state payroll registration and filings, worker classification, fringe benefits, year-end forms.
Assurance
Audit, review,
Audit, review,
or neither?
Send us the covenant or the grant condition. We will read it and tell you the minimum that satisfies it.