Financial Statements
Canadian entities must prepare financial statements for the tax authorities once a year. Also, Federal and Provincial laws require entities to prepare annual statements for owners and regulatory bodies. A full set of financial statements includes a Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Retained Earnings Statement, and Cash Flow Statement. Often, small entities dispense with some of these statements when reporting solely for tax purposes. As a licensed Public Accountant, I can provide you with the following services:
1. Compilation Engagements:
These engagements involve assisting you in preparing unaudited special purpose statements for income tax or management purposes. Usually, we do not prepare the full set of statements mentioned above. Our clients do as much summarizing and bookkeeping as possible to keep their costs down. However, we can do some or all of the bookkeeping using our accounting software.
2. Review Engagements:
These engagements are almost an audit, but they are not. We can assist you in preparing a full set of financial statements that must follow generally accepted accounting principles, and each statement would be clearly marked unaudited. Our review would consist of enquiry, analytical procedures, and discussions that would provide us with assurance regarding the plausibility of the statements. A client may request these statements because a third party, such as a lending institution, has asked for this level of assurance.
These engagements involve conducting an audit according to Canadian generally accepted auditing standards. The audit would lead to an opinion that the financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. Clients may need an audited set of financial statements due to Statutory regulations or a request from a third party such as a lending institution. Many non-profit organizations require an audit due to Statutory regulations.