What you should know about audited financial statements ( even for a non profit organization ) that your CPA might not tell you !

By: Neil D. Rischall CPA

My name is Neil Rischall and I am a CPA with an approach that may save your non profit organization some serious money. The fact is that many clients simply do not understand when they need audited financial statements or what the process requires.

My client was very happy to hire me because I was able to qoute him a fixed fee and give him a timeline for when the audit and tax services would be complete. So after two previously deliquent years were completed he was happy to pay my fee and shortly afterword search the internet to find copies of his returns where on file with the Internal Revenue Service.

The following year his contributions had fallen off and the organization was below the threshold for requiring an audit. The client was very pleased to find out that I had suggested that he downgrade the annual work to reviewed financial statements in order to reduce their fee. This was accomplished by doing some analysis to make sure that the organization was required to have audited financial statenments prepared.

Would you like to avail yourself of this and other pre audit consulting free of charge? If this is of interest to you simply send me an email to cpa@post.com with a brief ( or longer ) description of your organization. With a quick series of email's we can possibly save you some money or at least give you some tips to get your audit done with less hassle.

Warmest regards,

Neil D. Rischall CPA

or why just call Neil toll free at 866-559-6434 for a free consultation !

 Audited Financial Statements for Non Profit Organizations

Audited financial statements for non-profit organizations are used to provide financial accountability and accuracy to federal and state governments from which they receive funding from, constituents whom are dependent on their programs, as well as board members and other people with an interest in the organization. An independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) will prepare an audited financial statement using financial documents provided by the organization. These documents will include various financial documents such as cash flow, income statement and balance sheets. The CPA examines the documents which support figures within the financial statements, assesses the overall accounting principles used, and evaluates the overall financial statement presentation. From this information the CPA creates an audited financial statement.

 Other resources: 

Three Steps to get Audited Financial Statements 

 Within the audited financial statement, the certified public accountant provides an opinion, either qualified or unqualified, about the nature of the financial documents. An unqualified opinion in an audited financial statement indicates that the CPA is in agreement with the methods used by the organization to prepare their financial documents. The audit is found to be accurate, complete and fairly presented to meet the requirements of the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The audit provides the CPA a reasonable basis for their opinion that the financial statements are free of material misstatements or false/missing information.

A qualified opinion indicates that the CPA is not in agreement with aspects of the financial statements and/or methods used to prepare their financial documents. A qualified opinion indicates that the CPA is not confident that the financial statements are correct or accurate.

Occasionally an opinion will not be given within an audited financial statement. This could be due to the fact that there were insignificant documents available to properly prepare the audit, or there were issues that need to be addressed before evaluating the accuracy of the financial documents. A lack of opinion usually indicates that an organization needs to improve their accounting practices so they can meet the requirements of the US GAAP, FASB, and IRS.