Effortlessly Streamline Your Invoicing with Invoice4you for NPOs

Invoice4you for NPOs

all right y'all welcome back um if you are expecting your non-profit organization to grow then eventually you will run into a point where you have to be audited don't go anywhere I know you're here all day and you're like I can't and I get it but being audited really ends up being inevitable as your organization grows and so if anything it really is important to understand how to prepare for an audit so that when this time does roll around for you you know what to do and for those of you who have already been audited or you are at the point where you're approaching you know that point this video will also help you because we might discuss some things that you need to be doing that you're not doing so let's jump in so specifically I want to focus on our process at Visionary Accounting Group because one I'm actually a formal auditor and our promise really is to keep our clients audit ready because we do work with organizations that are big enough to be audited typically at a federal level and also at a state level and so it's really important to us that they are audit ready at all times and not just when audit season rolls around so when we first start working together something that's really really really important is the basics right and so when you think of what do I need to do to prepare for a non-profit accounting audit it's do you have a good and strong financial foundation and so when we first start working with any client we do a very thorough assessment so that we can determine the state of their books right do they have fiscal policies and procedures are there internal controls in place are there areas that are significantly vulnerable to risk to fraud like what is the overall state of your financial operations and to be honest while we do this for clients that first come in we also do some iteration of this annually because as your organization grows as you know you fire people you hire people you change things around you need to be um very sensitive to the fact that what you were doing previously might have worked but maybe it doesn't work now and so it's important to us to make sure that we set the proper financial Foundation before we even talk about some of these other things that you need to be doing so typically our reason for doing the assessment is because when we actually are in the audit process usually when we see things go wrong it's honestly due to like horrible bookkeeping you know lack of policies and procedures or you have policies and procedures people aren't following them you know a super manual process lots of inefficiencies a lack of process and so we won't know these things if we don't do the assessment and so it's important for us to really comb through and see where the gaps are one because that lets us know okay if an auditor was to stumble on this this is absolutely a red flag we need to fix this but also it's like this is super inefficient why are we still doing things this way when there's a better way to do it a more efficient way or more faster way to do set thing and so it's important that we comb through all of these areas of your financial operations to make sure that we're plugging the holes speaking of plugging holes after we do the assessment we typically have a laundry list or not you know it might be short of things that we know needs to be done and typically we will prioritize these things because it does depend on you know where we are in the year are we close to audit season are we in audit season right do we have some time but essentially the plugging of the holes is what happens after we do the assessment because now we know where things stand so what does plugging the holes consist of or look like that's cleaning up your books right so it's when is the last time your accounts were reconciled are things falling in the right place on the p l and the balance sheet right do you have things sitting in uncategorized or miscellaneous or other accounts that really need to be reclassified and specified right do you have fiscal policies and procedures or do we need to create them right are they super old and we need to bring them up to date are that things happening in the organization that leaves you open and susceptible to risk and so we need to change that process so plugging the hoses honestly another word for execution it's doing the work right it's making sure that whatever gaps and issues and recommendations we have after we've done that assessment it's now making sure we do the work to close all of these gaps and holes simply put it's the cleanup we don't figured out where the mess was probably what caused it now we need to clean it up and it's very rare that we will start working with a client and we can just jump in and move forward we typically do have to do a look back and typically there's always some cleanup that has to happen because typically you're busy right you know sometimes it's hard to keep a pulse on what's Happening you got behind in your bookkeeping and so we do have to go back to make sure that we bring these things current right and that the books are in pristine condition and that's what we're paid for right like we want to make sure or the client wants to make sure that they've hired the right people they brought us in to make sure things are in Tip-Top shape and we want to make sure that when the auditor comes in there is a clear-cut process for how they can access things where things are located making sure things are done on time like we're not still trying to clean up you know we want to make sure that it is a really smooth and streamlined process because audit season can be very stressful and if you don't have things in order that takes your stress level times 10 to be honest and it's not only stressful for the client it is stressful for us too and so that's why we do our best year round to keep you audit ready now we've done the assessment right we've plugged the holes now what happens next next is that we need to organize our efforts right and so typically where I see Things fall off with clients when they're going to the audit process is it's all over the place even if you have clean books things are your things are organized as as it relates to like your financial documentation it's now the other side of things like how do we make sure that this is not a chaotic process for all of those involved we have to have a process for how we manage this audit and so these are things that are less Financial but more process oriented right and so it's things like when is kickoff you know engaging the auditor and determining their timeline for things right so that we can make sure that we're ready on our end it's Gathering the PBC list right PPC stands for provided by Client List it's the preliminary list that Auditors will send that kind of will list out all of their initial requests right so things like your trial balance your general ledger because that's where they're pulling their sample selection from which is another reason why your books need to be clean the year needs to be closed because then you can't provide them with what they need or with what they're requesting because you're still making changes and adjustments and things over here so you need to be finished and so as part of this whole organ Rising your efforts is planning out the field work right it's determining who's going to be doing what because you've engaged us but there are things that we might need from you as the client there are things that may come from us as your accountant and so we have a very clear process on how how we determine when we gave you what right when what was requested when was it provided by whom right we have a consistent meeting on the calendar that with not only the client but then also the auditor so that we can make sure that we're keeping a post on what's Happening and that things are moving along because I cannot tell you the amount of times that clients have engaged Auditors who have gone goals who have taken a really long time to get back and respond and so it's important for us as the accountant to leave the process right to check in to make sure that there's nothing that's open or needed on our end and I think the really really uh key thing here is just making sure that you are available right and so a lot of times that's why we like to lead the process for the client because they're busy right and then lastly I think about that wrap up period or piece where the audit is done you've gotten your draft financials you know you've gotten you know your audit report and your happy with it but it may include some suggestions some recommendations or you might have had your exit interview with the Auditors and it might be something that they didn't include necessarily in the audit report but they're explaining to you some things that they think that you could do better this is where clients mess up because they can't wait for the audit to be done so they just you know they get that auto report they share it with who they need to share it with and they don't think about audit process or anything that has to do with auditing again until this time rolls around again next year and that is a mistake you need to take those recommendations those suggestions um those conversations seriously because they really do help to put your organization in a better place and it really does help to enhance your accounting process and your financial operations and so that is something that I actually deem very important I love getting a chance to talk to the Auditors at the end so that we can determine like what can we be doing better one to make sure that this process is better right in the future next year when all the season rolls around again and just to make sure that the organization is adequately you know accounting for what is moving in and out of the organization right and so um yeah don't forget to do that and so I hope that this video was helpful I hope it kind of gave you a peek into our process and how we prepare for an audit if there's any area that you want me to dive deeper into let me know down in the comments and I will see you guys in the next video foreign