Financial audits are essential to any business that wants to confirm its value to its employees and stakeholders, but they require a great deal of preparation. When audit season comes around, many companies find themselves scrambling to compile documents to ready themselves for the process, leading to inaccuracies and extended auditing periods.
With audit prep services, your business will be ready when the board or a third party requests an audit. At Compass East, our financial expertise helps you navigate extensive auditing requirements and ensure the process is smooth and easy every step of the way. Learn more about these services and how we support your company for your annual audit.
What Is a Financial Audit and Why Is It Necessary?
A financial audit is an examination of your finances, accompanying documents and processes to determine your financial position. Auditors are usually third-party individuals who don’t have a stake in your financial outcome, so they can approach the audit from an unbiased perspective. They’ll compare your financial records to relevant accounting standards to ensure accuracy and confirm company value.
Financial audits require a range of documentation, which often includes these and other resources:
- Your general ledger
- Accounting policies and procedures
- Paid bills and bank statements
- Financial statements broken down by net asset class
- Reconciliation reports
- Fiscal year budget
Audits are valuable for various reasons. While they give reasonable assurance about the value of your company, they also act as a confirmation for stakeholders about their investment. Many businesses use audits as a way to verify that they work within all required regulatory practices in their industry. These examinations are also a way to identify and prevent fraud.
Companies usually schedule audits annually, and they can be external or internal. While an external audit looks at statements and financial risks, internal audits delve deeper into your company’s practices. They may look at growth, environmental impact, reputation and employee culture to determine the state of your company overall.
Auditing practices are constantly evolving to align with accounting standards and create consistency across the board. Since the process is so vital to company valuation, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Fortunately, through our audit preparation and planning services, your business can achieve complete readiness for your annual audit procedures.
About Audit Prep Solutions With Compass East
With accounting audit preparation services at Compass East, you can go into your next audit period feeling confident. If you’ve ever looked at an audit preparation checklist, you know there are numerous documents required for the process. Our team offers auditing expertise to help your business compile this paperwork before an auditor visits.
Our audit support involves coordination with auditors and tax certified public accountants (CPAs) to ensure your documents are in order. We also collaborate with advisors, bankers, lenders and other third parties as necessary to ensure everything is accurate, organized and ready for examination. Our team will handle inquiries and information exchange so your management can focus on larger projects.
As part of our audit prep services, we perform the following:
- Prepare Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) schedules, such as profit-earning operations and cash flows
- Handle and prepare audit packages
- Coordinate with your auditor’s fieldwork
- Sample testing documents
- Finalize and select appropriate accounting policies, like revenue recognition and capitalization
Navigating an audit can feel like a challenge when you’re trying to run a business. Our goal is to offer comprehensive audit support to ensure everything is in order by the time the auditor is ready to do their job. We handle all auditor coordination on our end, letting you focus on your operational needs.
The Benefits of Audit Support
Accounting audit preparation service and support is valuable for a few reasons:
- Accuracy: Keeping track of all your financial documents and ensuring every number is accurate is challenging for every business, regardless of size. If your company is expanding quickly, financial documentation is even harder to manage. Audit coordination with Compass East handles the accuracy checks when preparing your documents, so every number is in the right place.
- Compliance: Auditing requirements include a range of regulatory practices in the accounting world. Given the number and scope of these regulations, many companies don’t have the time to manage compliance needs as well as other business operations. Our team ensures your accounting documents and practices align with all relevant standards.
- Efficiency: With our dedication to accuracy and compliance, your auditor can perform their work with utmost efficiency. You’ll make it through auditing season with ease and carry on with business operations with fewer interruptions.
- Costs: When the auditor must spend long hours combing through disorganized documents and processes, this typically increases the number of billable hours and cost. Our commitment to compliance, organization and accuracy will reduce the time your auditor spends with your company, decreasing the overall costs.
The Compass East team has a wide range of financial experience to provide comprehensive audit prep support. Plus, outsourcing to our team means you don’t need to hire additional staff members to support your finance office during an audit.
Trust the Audit Preparation Experts at Compass East
At Compass East, we’re a team of financial experts well versed in auditing requirements. Before we offered a full suite of financial services, we worked as internal and external auditors, and we know what your company needs to maintain accuracy, organization and compliance. Our range of experience paired with third-party collaboration ensures your audit preparation is as thorough as possible.
With our extensive portfolio of financial services, you can depend on us for audit support and more to keep your company in good standing. We provide services from financial modeling and cash flow management to key performance indicator (KPI) development. We have a complex understanding of corporate finances, and we’re prepared to support you in any way you need us.