Standard Financial Statements
When working with Bankers, Investors, or insurance companies, you will probably need to have financial statements that are prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP). I can help you in the preparation of these statements. Financial statements usually consist of a balance sheet, income statement, reconciliation of owner equity, cash flow statement, and footnotes. The three levels of service for financial statements are compilation, review, and audit. Unless otherwise required by a third party, you will probably be interested in a compilation since it is the most cost effective. A review is going to cost slightly more than a compilation and audits are considerably more costly.
Projected & Forecasted Financial Statements
Are normally used during the startup of a new business or project. They use information and hypothetical assumptions to project/forecast future results (usually three to five years out).
Compilation
Is a presentation in the form of financial statements information provided by you without any assurance from your Certified Public Accountant (CPA). The CPA should understand your accounting records, form and content of financial statements, and the qualifications of the personnel preparing your books. The CPA is not gathering evidence and does not verify the information you provide. Rather, the CPA reads the compiled statements to assure that they are in appropriate form and without obvious material errors.
Review
Is an accounting service providing some assurance (negative) to third parties as to the reliability of financial data without the CPA conducting an examination in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. In a review, some of the procedures include: having a good understanding of your industry, being familiar with the method in which you record your transactions, reading the minutes of your meetings, inquiring your personnel regarding your company, performing statistical analysis of your financial information, and obtaining a client representation letter from management. Since the CPA is not required to collect information that collaborates the figures on the financial statements, the review report only offers limited assurance that there are no known significant modifications to the financial statements that would need to be made in order for them to conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principals.
Audit
Is the highest level of service. An audit includes all the work required for a review plus: the testing of your company's internal controls, the testing of your transactions, verification of balance sheet items, inquiries to your legal counsel, inquiries to third parties that owe you money, inquiries to third parties you owe money to, and inquiries to your banks. Audits are normally conducted by several staff accountants and overseen by one or more partners.
