Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. is a licensed Certified Public Accounting firm qualified to audit your company’s financial statements. Audited financial statements prepared by Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. include our opinion stating that we have audited the company’s financial statements and have provided reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatements.

How will an audit help your business?

An audit provides you with assurance as to the reliability of your financial statements and also includes the following:

Financial Analysis
Financial analysis performed in connection with an audit helps you make more informed business decisions.We concentrate on identifying trends, which can assist management in recognizing the company’s strengths and weaknesses.The philosophy we express to our clients is “What you can measure you can manage, what you can manage you can improve.”

Understanding of Internal Control Structure
As part of the audit process, we obtain an understanding of your company’s internal control structure.This enables us to make recommendations to improve internal controls that can provide safeguards on assets and improve operating efficiency.

The Management Letter
At the conclusion of the audit, we will provide management with a “Management Letter” which summarizes business recommendations for improvements in operating efficiency and internal controls discovered during the audit.These recommendations are always communicated verbally with management.Our goal is to help management provide solutions that will improve the success of the company.

Does my business need audited financial statements?

An outside party who may have a significant financial interest in the company and desires third party assurance regarding the financial statements often requires an audit. Some possible situations which may require an audit would be if:

• The company needs additional financing to fund an expansion.
• The owner is contemplating a sale of the business.
• Shareholders demand an audit for determining a value of the company for purposes of a buy-sell agreement.
• The owner or board of directors wants additional comfort from an objective third party on the financial position of the company.

In today’s highly competitive business world, timely and correct financial statements are essential to a business by acting as:

• A management tool in analyzing the company’s performance.
• A method of advance preparation and planning for federal and state income taxes.
• A means of obtaining financing from outside sources.

Reviews and Compilations

When audited financial statements are not appropriate, Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. can provide the following accounting services to help you achieve these goals:

Reviews
A review is substantially less in scope than an audit and consists of inquiries of company personnel and analytical procedures applied to financial data. While a review is significantly less in scope than an audit, it does involve a significant degree of knowledge and understanding of your business and industry. We will also analyze and evaluate your financial situation. The knowledge we gain during the review can be put to good use in advising you in the future. When the review is complete, we will assist your personnel with necessary adjustments.

A review is beneficial in the following ways:

• The inquiry and analytical procedures we perform emphasize significant variances within the financial statements or between the current and prior years; and
• Our review opinion on the financial statements provides you and your bank with limited assurance that no material modifications need to be made to the financial statements.

Compilations
In many instances, management’s requirements are limited to presenting company prepared financial data in proper financial statement format. We can compile your financial data into a format that is accepted by readers of financial statements. A compilation can also benefit your company by assisting in any year-end adjustments that need to be made to more accurately reflect the company’s financial position and results of operations.

Specialized Accounting Services

Occasionally, a business owner needs a service that does not fit the mold of a “standard” accounting service such as an audit, review or compilation. Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. provides services to assist with those needs. These other services may include performing agreed-upon procedures to a specific financial area, preparing analytical procedures and ratio analysis, preparing financial projections to assess an expansion, and performing an internal control review. After Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. performs any of the procedures outlined below, your company will be furnished with a management letter or report from our firm that details our findings and recommendations. These services are more fully explained as follows:

Agreed-upon procedures
Performing agreed-upon procedures is a process of applying specific procedures to an area of a financial statement or within a specific accounting cycle.When agreed-upon procedures are requested, a member of Apex CPAs & Consultants, Inc. will meet with you to determine what specific goals you are trying to accomplish and the procedures that will help achieve those goals.

Agreed-upon procedures are then performed to provide management or others with an opinion regarding the fairness of the information presented.For example, a financial institution could require verification of the amount reported as accounts receivable on the customer’s financial statements to ensure that the bank’s collateral (accounts receivable) is a viable asset.

Analytical procedures/Ratio analysis
Analytical procedures and ratio analysis is a financial analysis of the company that discloses trends concerning the company’s:

• Financial stability
• Ability to meet its current obligations
• Operations

The services are based upon comparisons with prior years as well as with similar companies within your industry.The information provided in an analytical procedures and ratio analysis will assist management in focusing on the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide another way to interpret current financial information.