Financial Statement Audit

In an ironic twist, corporate scandals have brought forth a renewed sense of appreciation for the audit process. An audit once conjured up images of beady-eyed accountants in backrooms toiling through documents, looking for trouble. Today, companies welcome the integrity and wisdom that audit reports provide to management and investors alike. These reports involve the investigation and analysis of an organization’s systems, internal controls, and financial records over a period of time. The ultimate product provides all parties with an invaluable tool to measure, compare and evaluate the financial wherewithal of a business.

A Clearly Defined Process

Though more highly regarded than ever, the audit process can appear to be complex and cumbersome for management teams to absorb. PKM seeks to de-mystify and simplify the process by breaking it down into a series of clearly defined phases.

Planning
No other phase of the audit process affects the success of an engagement more than the time invested in a preliminary audit survey and in planning the general scope and direction of the audit. At PKM, formal planning is not an option. It is a policy.

Interim Field Work
We perform interim procedures at a convenient date prior to the end of the fiscal year in order to create the potential to save time during the critical year-end period. This "early-bird" discipline enables faster completion of the audited financial statements.

Year-End Field Work
Our moment on center stage – we execute planned audit program steps and issue a report on the financial statements. For public companies, we also review Form 10-K (10-KSB), emphasizing the appropriateness and transparency of the organization’s disclosures and management’s discussion and analysis in accordance with the rules of the SEC.

Audit Committee Communication
Mandated by accounting standards, regular communication with the audit committee is, in our opinion, just as critical to the independence and objectivity of our work as the audit process itself. Our audit committee meetings include full discussion of audit results, review of the Form 10-K (10-KSB) in the case of SEC registered companies, and disclosure of adjustments to financial statements – both those recorded and not recorded – that were made as a result of our audit. These meetings are as much about the reasons and rationale behind our recommendations as they are about the actual numbers on the statements.

Audit Efficiency

The PKM audit features a computer-based electronic workpaper documentation system that provides our auditors with simultaneous access to audit workpapers and designed audit programs. This paperless system benefits our clients by promoting multiple efficiencies and enhances the security of the information we gather about clients and their customers. Both translate into a faster and less costly audit process for our clients.

Our approach to efficiency also encompasses the efficient use of your personnel’s time. We seek to minimize, for instance, the duplication of efforts with the services of your internal auditor. Every effort is made to allow your staff to adequately prepare for the audit by providing lists of needed materials in advance and attempting to schedule our workdays with the timetables of your key personnel.

And, whenever possible, PKM auditors share financial information with our tax professionals to reduce the duplication of effort in gathering information for the preparation of tax returns.

Quality Control From Partners

You pay for our experience, and we guarantee that you receive it. Partner involvement ensures quality control in every audit we conduct. The partner assigned to your audit will have 15 or more years of experience in your industry. Partners are involved in all critical decisions, conduct on-site audit reviews, meet with your personnel and review the staff work. Our field auditors know that partners will challenge their audit decisions in order to ensure high-level checks and balances. PKM further ensures quality control by requiring a final review of critical accounting and auditing issues and financial statement disclosures by a partner that has no direct involvement in the audit. Simply put, we do not view quality as an intangible attribute, but as a controlled process. Our job is to get it right. Period.