Just the thought of financial audits strikes fear in the heart of any business owner.  Still, there are many reasons to have your accountant or CPA conduct a financial audit on some sort of periodic frequency.

It’s a fact of business life that accounting transactions, whether payables or receivables, can get missed or incorrectly entered in the routine of day-to-day bookkeeping.  Small errors can have a huge financial (and potentially legal) impact on the company balance sheet.

Financial audits uncover more than just bad bookkeeping, though.  Hardly a day goes by without a news story about a trusted CFO or bookkeeper who was engaged in fraud or embezzlement.

An independent (but trusted) CPA can be your best protection against both bad accounting and fraud.  Good paper records are always critical in conducting audits, but so is a well-managed accounting program.  Most off-the-shelf small and mid-sized business accounting programs such as QuickBooks have audit trails built into the software.  So it becomes easier for the CPA to, for example, match up transactions, identify incorrect (or suspect) ledger entries and balance out expenses such as payroll and taxes.

When it comes to accounting and bookkeeping, the bottom line for the business owner should always be, “trust, but verify.”  A periodic, independent review of the books is the best way to identify problems and find out what (or who) caused the problem.  It should go without saying, but knowing that a problem exists with a company’s financial accounting is the only way to correct the issue, regardless of the source.

The professionals at Net Plus Consulting are financial and technology experts.  We can help the small business owner with audits and recommendations that will improve the financial health of the company.  Visit our website or call us at 212-461-3300 to discuss your needs.

Net Plus Consulting is a nationwide service provider.  To get started, check out our website or contact us to arrange a free one hour consultation.