Audits
There are three levels of financial statements representing different standards and procedures. Auditing is the most sophisticated of the processes for gathering and evaluating financial information and testing the conformity of the financial statements with generally accepted accounting principles.

Obviously the independence, objectivity, competence and integrity of the accounting firm conducting an audit is essential, because investors, lenders, and creditors rely on the accompanying statements to represent fairly a company's financial position. We must apply quality control standards which assure accuracy.

Governmental agencies, entities receiving public funds and some privately held companies may be required by lenders or regulatory bodies to participate in independent audits. Audits can also offer invaluable financial information to management.

Compilations and Reviews
Procedures for Reviews are substantially less comprehensive than audits, but do provide limited assurance that they fairly represent the company's financial status. As such they are often sufficient to meet the requirements of lending institutions.

In Compilations, we put the financial information supplied by the client into the form of financial statements but do not express any assurance.

AICPA Center for Public Company Audit Firms

Membership requires the rigorous inspection of the firm's procedures and policies that affect the quality of its work.

The review is conducted by a team of independent CPA's, whose firms are also members of the Center for Public Company Audit Firms, and the peer review is repeated every three years.

Our featured article :
"Another GAP in the Accounting Professions"
Discusses issues of materiality as they relate to recent concerns about misleading information in audited financial statements