- The initial objective of any accounting or audit professional is to ensure that your current books and records are accurate. To ensure accuracy, accountants will assess the methodology you use for posting daily journal entries to the general ledger to reflect changes in earnings, expenses, liabilities and assets. Your consultation can also include the sampling of certain financial accounts for more in-depth analysis to ensure the balances are correct. Since many audit professionals are familiar with various accounting technology tools, they can evaluate the reliability of software and provide insight into how you can maximize your use of the tools.
- Accounting and audit firms can also prepare your company’s quarterly and annual financial statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), even without having to conduct a thorough audit of your company’s entire accounting function. The preparation of accurate financial statements is important since banks and other financial institutions rely on this information when evaluating your business’ creditworthiness. Moreover, when seeking additional capital to expand your business, investors want to quickly review the company’s earnings history, which is only possible when accurate financial statements are available. In most cases, investors and creditors require an accountant or auditor to attest to the accuracy of the financial statements.
- Recently, many accounting firms are beginning to offer auditing services that focus exclusively on preventing and uncovering fraud within a company. Accountants and auditors who specialize in fraud detection have specific audit techniques they apply to uncover areas where your accounting process is vulnerable to employee fraud or to investigate specific instances of fraud that you suspect are taking place, such as embezzlement of company funds.
- Most accounting and audit firms also offer tax planning and reporting consultation services. Using the financial accounting data of your company, accountants will make various adjustments to these figures to account for the differences between GAAP and the Internal Revenue Code when preparing your business tax returns.
Moreover, once these consultants complete the preparation of the company’s tax returns, they can provide you with tax planning advice. For example, if your consultant discovers that you aren’t taking advantage of certain tax benefits, such as business tax credits, part of her tax planning services may include preparing the appropriate forms for the current year, as well as amending prior returns to claim the credits.
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