CPA Firm For Cooperatives
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Cooperatives have very different
accounting requirements.
You need a partner, a CPA firm for cooperatives, who has a thorough understanding of the industry and isn’t afraid to, for example, get dirty and crawl in a grain bin to measure your inventory!
When it comes to auditing coops, the staff members at Gardiner Thomsen are specialists. We understand the coop industry because we created our firm to specifically serve the coop market. As a leading Midwestern CPA firm for cooperatives, we’ve been counseling clients in nine mid-western states for more than 40 years, and our knowledge and success has had a valuable impact on the coop industry. For instance, in 2009, Gardiner Thomsen had performed audit services for over 100 coops, and in the 1990’s, Dan Gardiner, our founder, took part in drafting the state legislation to allow for the first value added agricultural coops in Iowa.
To be extraordinary, a CPA firm for cooperatives must work along side management and boards of directors to aid in solving problems and developing strategic plans to help them achieve their goals. We continue to do this for both large and small cooperatives. We understand how the business functions, that coops work on tight profit margins and prosper by capitalizing and building equity for the company. We understand a coop must constantly be focused on controlling expenses because it is key to their long-term success. That is why our coop advisors offer specialized expertise that will help you address your individual goals as well as plan for the future.
The GT Advantage
When you look at building a balance sheet, ensuring the viability of the company, and ensuring that the equity of the owners is going to be returned at a profit, you need an auditing CPA firm for cooperatives who is familiar with all the aspects of your business.
While performing an audit, we familiarize ourselves with every nook and cranny of your coop. For example, if you have grain bins, we’ll put our own boots on and climb in to count inventory. It’s an advantage to our clients that we do this ourselves, unlike most firms, because it gives us more first-hand knowledge of how the co-op operates.
We involve the board of directors and show them things they typically don’t get to see like our processes, possible inventory quality issues that may be draining profits, and areas where minor improvements in operation can reap huge benefits on the balance sheet. This means you’ll have a more accurate assessment of inventory and other asset values.
Audits
With Gardiner Thomsen, your audit is conducted by a firm of professionals with years of experience and insight into farmer cooperatives. In fact, several of our professionals each have over 20 years of experience in auditing farmer cooperatives while many of our other employees grew up in farming communities. As you would expect, this experience is invaluable when we’re performing your audit and enables us to give you one of the most comprehensive reports in the industry. Since we have a thorough understanding of cooperatives, we’re able to perform your audit more effectively and provide you with value-added feedback and suggestions.
Some examples of specialized coop services we offer:
- Establishing an audit committee
- Strategic planning
- Merger studies
- Partnership analysis and implementation
- Budgets, forecasts and projections
- Compensation programs
- Member surveys
- Disaster recovery planning
- Managing member equity
- Accounting procedures
- Inventory valuation procedures
- Internal control structure reviews
- Board Governance Issues