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Assurance
Service descriptions for:
Audits and reviews
Director's examinations
Internal audit outsourcing
Fraud prevention and investigation
Compliance audit for financial services industry
Loan review outsourcing for financial services industry
Litigation support
Single Audit Act statement and compliance audit for nonprofit or governmental organizations
Qualified retirement plan audit
Benefit:
- Provide visibility and security to an organization’s lenders and stakeholders about an organization’s financial status
- Lay the foundation for access to capital and other resources needed (often required by lenders and investors)
- Reinforce financial discipline and accountability
- Meet regulatory requirements
Who’s most likely to benefit:
Any organization seeking:
- Security and reassurance about the organization’s operations and financials for internal and external stakeholders
- Easier access to capital
- Additional financial credibility
- To meet regulatory requirements for audits or other attest services
Description:
- AUDIT: For a financial statement audit, an audit team reviews an organization’s financial statement and the underlying data that supports it to ensure that the information is fairly and materially stated and reflects the organization’s financial status.
Audit process and methodology: Before fieldwork, the team coordinates scheduling and deadlines with the organization’s financial leadership to secure any documents required before the visit, assesses risks which could affect financial performance, explores whether reasonable assumptions were made in creating the financial statement, and determines an audit plan.
Once on-site at the client's organization, the audit team reviews and confirms selected financial information within the company (such as bank statement reconciliations, inventory and accounts receivable/payable) for comparison with the financial statement, and examines certain internal financial controls. The team is also required to consider the possibility of fraud.
At the conclusion of fieldwork, a final meeting is held onsite with the organization’s financial leadership to resolve any remaining questions or issues. AGH then issues an audit report draft for the organization’s review and comment, then a final audit opinion.
- REVIEW: In a review of financial data, inquiry and analytical procedures are performed, but no confirmation or the data is pursued, and no formal audit opinion is issued. A review report states whether the audit team found any variances from generally accepted accounting practices.
- COMPILATION: An abbreviated perusal of financial data compiled and presented by the organization. There is no independent inquiry and confirmation of the data; it is simply formatting information into a financial statement. No audit opinion is issued.
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Benefit:
- Meets regulatory requirement for certain types of banks
- Relieves bank’s directors from time and labor of personal exam of bank
- Reinforces financial accountability and discipline and regulatory compliance
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- Banks and other financial institutions under $500 million in total assets
Description:
An audit team performs certain agreed-upon procedures designed to meet minimum standards that are required for a director’s exam. Observations and recommendations are discussed with bank management before the report to the bank’s board of directors.
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Outsourcing benefit:
- Audit team with more experience and additional specializations than most organizations generally can afford on staff full time
- Team’s exposure to a broad variety of financial services and other organizational environments provides industry-wide knowledge and best practices
Service benefit:
- Builds, supports and monitors risk management within an organization
- Increases effectiveness of governance
- Meet regulatory requirements for certain companies
- Serves as early-warning system for financials or regulatory compliance going awry
- Provides assurance to external stakeholders
Who’s most likely to benefit:
Organizations which:
- Have few or no internal audit resources
- Require geographically dispersed internal audit resources
- Need to supplement internal resources in specialized areas
- Want to increase independence of internal audit through outsourcing
- Due to FDICIA (if applicable), can no longer receive internal audit services from their external auditor
Description:
Independently of an organization’s top management, an internal audit team performs a risk-based assessment of an organization’s reliability and integrity of financial information, security over assets, compliance with laws and contracts, and internal controls. An internal audit team also may review risk related to information technology, fraud, third party and vendor transactions or relationships. Reports may include recommendations for improvement or risk management.
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Benefit:
- Protect assets by reducing an organization’s risk of fraud
- Provide reassurance to external stakeholders through recommending internal controls
- Discover or confirm presence or absence of fraud and gather evidence to support bonding claims and/or prosecution if required
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- In particular, organizations which:
- Suspect fraud, embezzlement or other inappropriate or illegal financial activity
- Are at high risk for fraud based on some aspect of the organization’s operations – for example, businesses which take in a large volume of cash daily, a history of fraudulent attempts, or high turnover in positions with asset-management responsibility
- Would be catastrophically injured if fraud occurred due to loss of the organization’s credibility
- Any organization: a 2004 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners study estimates that the typical U.S. organization loses 6% of its annual revenues to fraud – most often committed by employees.
Description:
When fraud may be suspected or even recognized, certified fraud examiners specialize in using document trails, interviews and other methods of investigation to uncover fraud, if it exists, and build a case for prosecution. Fraud examiners are trained to detect the myriad ways thieves, embezzlers and others can steal an organization’s assets and cover their tracks.
At the prevention level, a certified fraud examiner can help an organization protect itself from fraud ranging from simple cash register theft to financial statement manipulation at the highest level. By examining the organization’s risks throughout its operations and recommending internal controls and processes to safeguard assets, a fraud examiner can help reduce the losses a company sustains from fraud, and prevent many opportunities for fraud.
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Outsourcing benefit:
- Audit team with more experience and additional specializations than most organizations generally can afford on staff full time
- Team’s exposure to a broad variety of financial services and other organizational environments provides industry-wide knowledge and best practices
Service benefit:
- Builds, supports and monitors risk management within an organization
- Increases effectiveness of governance
- May meet regulatory requirements for certain companies
- Serves as early-warning system for financials or regulatory compliance going awry
- Provides assurance to external stakeholders
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- All banks
- Other regulated financial institutions
Description:
An AGH audit team examines specified areas of a financial institution’s operations to determine if it is complying with the regulatory requirements of various laws and agencies, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Audit teams review documents such as Suspicious-Activity Reports, Currency-Transaction Reports, board minutes and policies related to compliance, customer complaints, types of products and services offered, the bank’s locations and markets and the overall compliance-management program. An audit report and any recommendations are issued.
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Outsourcing benefit:
- Review team with more experience and additional specializations than most institutions generally can afford on staff full time
- Team’s exposure to a broad variety of loans and credit environments provides industry-wide knowledge and best practices
Service benefit:
- Monitors and manages financial institution’s loan risks and assets; projects and helps limit losses
- Meets regulatory requirements
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- Banks and other financial instutitions with small or under-resourced loan review staff
Description:
An AGH audit team examines the bank’s loan portfolio to determine level of risk for loss, overall quality and structure of loan portfolio, consistency and appropriateness of credit standards and lending practices.
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Benefit:
- Third-party financial expertise brings credibility and objectivity to financial issues in the case
- Financial research and reporting translates specialized financial data into understandable and possibly actionable court information
Who’s most likely to benefit:
Attorneys whose clients require expert witnesses with specialized financial or accounting expertise to support their court case. Litigation support has been provided for cases involving:
- Business valuation
- Divorce
- Bankruptcy
- Business interruption
- Specific accounting, auditing or tax issues
Description:
Based on the case and the type of information sought, a typical litigation support engagement requires a review of related financial and organizational documents, determination and applicability of pertinent regulations and generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP), and a report on the findings. Expert witness testimony may be required in some cases.
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Benefit:
- Meets regulatory requirements of Single Audit Act Circular A-133 (1996 amendment) and avoids need for two separate audits
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- Nonfederal entities that spend more than $500,000 annually in federal awards
Description:
An AGH team conducts audits of both organization-wide and federal awards financial statements to determine if they fairly and materially represent the organization’s financial status and are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This inquiry, analysis and confirmation of data also includes a review of internal controls, compliance with laws, regulations and grant agreements, and recommendations from any previous audit findings.
The audit report covers whether the financial statements are fairly presented, status of internal controls, compliance with laws and regulations, and risk assessment of major programs.
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Benefit:
- Meets Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service regulatory requirements under ERISA
- Provides assurance that retirement plan is handling employee contributions, enrollments, distributions and loans in compliance with plan guidelines and employees’ instructions.
Who’s most likely to benefit:
- Organizations whose retirement plan has 120 or more eligible participants
Description:
An AGH audit team samples and tests various transactions within the retirement plan’s year, including comparing requested versus actual participant elections, loans outstanding, plan distributions and appropriate exclusion from the plan. AGH’s audit report is issued to be included as part of the organization’s Form 5500 filing with the Department of Labor. Back to top
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