Auditing
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Audits are a must for any organization that needs to offer a higher level of assurance to its customers, governing boards and other outside parties. Any audit is an independent evaluation of the accuracy and completeness of your organization’s financial statements and is the highest level of reporting available for any organization’s financial reports.
During an audit, we will also study your internal controls and asess any potential financial risk. Once we’ve assembled our findings, we’ll issue a report and offer strategic recommendations to you or your board members. This opinion is called an audit report. This will help you improve your internal controls, reduce your organization’s risk and highlight potential areas of additional savings.
Gardiner Thomsen views our audit services as more than an annual assessment of your organization’s financial status. It’s our opportunity to provide you with ideas and suggestions that will improve your internal controls. We’ll stay in contact with you throughout the year to learn more about your business and to stay on top of any new changes that may impact your audit. This allows us to create an audit process that results in a meaningful and strategic experience that is tailored to meet your unique needs. We can also enhance the usefulness of information gained from an audit by performing a wide variety of services to such as:
- Agreed-Upon Procedures
- Fraud Detection Services
Agreed-Upon-Procedures
Occasionally, organizations have the need to assure third parties of the accuracy or their financial statements or have compliance requirements that fall outside the normal scope of an audit. Without having to commit to a full audit engagement, Gardiner Thomsen can perform specialized agreed-upon procedures to meet those requirements.
Any agreed-upon procedures engagement is intended to provide your management, board members and audit committee with insight into key findings in your financial statements. Many of our clients depend on us to perform agreed-upon procedures to add outside credibility to information and reports they’ll be presenting to banks, credit unions, regulatory agencies and customers. Some examples are:
- Fraud Investigation
- Internal Auditing Services
- Merger or Acquisition Candidate Accounting Records
- Accounting Record Reconciliation
- Compliance with Covenants or Laws
Fraud Detection Services
Auditing services performed by Gardiner Thomsen now stress an importance on fraud detection. Although many clients may not be familiar with it, fraud detection is something that must now be placed as a high priority.
With scandals such as Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson, auditors must perform additional procedures to determine whether or not financial statements are free of material misstatement. Also, fraud detection services are increasing due to a new audit standard titled SAS 99 ‘Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement,’ issued by the Auditing Standards Board.
Due to these factors, auditors will question management, auditing committees and others within each company about the risk of fraud, the knowledge of any known fraud and policies and procedures to address fraud. It is important to understand that these fraud detection procedures will be done as preventative measures to benefit each client. In order to facilitate this process, Gardiner Thomsen asks clients to remind employees that fraud detection interviews will be on-going and that anyone may be interviewed.