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Grafton & Associates Resource Information

Accounting Terms

Agreed to Procedures

As a cost effective alternative to a full scope audit, agreed to procedures allow you to outline specific procedures for our staff to perform on accounts, processes or transactions and report the results to you. This most often occurs for specific agreements you have with others (such as verifying lease agreement terms) or to meet regulatory requirements of a specific industry (such as banking).

Annual Billings, Meeting Notices, Data Base Management and Daily Deposits

Many homeowners’ associations (as volunteer-run organizations) struggle with basic operating procedures like billings to homeowner members, sending of meeting notices to inform its members and making regular bank deposits to safeguard the association’s liquid assets. Our staff is long experienced in the most efficient and cost effective ways to perform these duties, such as maintenance of a detailed member/property data base, use of mechanized postage and folding machines, etc.

Auditing

In performing an objective analysis of a company’s financial statements, we gain an understanding of your organization by assessing control risks and comparing accounting records and management representations to supporting documentation. Through these processes, our Firm will be able to report if your financial statements are fairly stated under current accounting standards. An audit can result in correcting entries to your records and accounts and also provide recommendations for improvement in your organization’s internal controls to safeguard assets, improve record keeping and financial reporting accuracy, etc.

Business Consulting

We can assist in a carefully planned strategic course of action for all phases of running a business. We offer wide ranging guidance from choosing a legal entity for maximum tax benefit to selecting various employee benefits for maximum impact. In addition to our professional expertise, we offer a network of trusted experts available for a number of other business needs such as trusts, legal, insurance, banking, etc.

Compilations

Our financial team will gather your financial information and put it in a financial statement format that is in accordance to generally accepted accounting principles. This, most often, is performed on a monthly basis in conjunction with monthly accounting and bookkeeping services.

Monthly Accounting and Bookkeeping

These are customized bookkeeping services developed by our staff for each client, which can include accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciling accounts and completing payroll and payroll tax requirements. We provide you with a monthly balance sheet and income statements, which allow you to track the flow of your business in a condensed report. We tailor our monthly accounting and bookkeeping services by doing as little or as much as you need to get to the answers you want in a timely and accurate manner.

Representation at IRS Audits

Our accountants will coach you on what to expect from an audit and how and what to prepare. Our team has the knowledge and negotiation skills that will best protect you and your business and minimize the heartache associated with an IRS audit.

Reviews

As a less costly alternative to a full scope audit, we apply analytical procedures to your financial statements and make management inquiries about financial accounting practices to give you limited assurance that the financial statements and related disclosures are in accordance with current accounting standards. These services are most typical for some specialized industries such as construction for bonding company requirements.

Preparation of Form 5500, Annual Return/Report for Employee Benefit Plan

As a government reporting requirement for most employee benefit plans, our Firm can prepare this highly technical and, frankly, confusing plan information filing in full compliance with the current, yet ever changing, plethora of IRS and U.S. Department of Labor regulations. We do this through comprehensive on-going staff education, use of nationally known software and years of experience in this specialized industry area.