Audit & Other Assurance Services

Audits

In planning our engagements, we strive to understand your operations and challenges. We identify the unique aspects of your business and industry and then assemble an engagement team that we know will best serve your needs. 

Our audit methodology allows our engagement team to use professional judgment throughout the planning and execution phases of an audit. Here are the key steps in our audit process:

Understand the client - We learn as much as possible about your business up front in order to properly understand things like account balances, classes of transactions, and disclosures relevant to your activities.

Risk assessment - We assess your system of internal controls to determine levels of risk relating to errors or fraud that may lead to your financial statements being materially misstated. We then evaluate whether the identified risks relate to specific assertions concerning significant account balances, classes of transactions, or disclosures, or whether they relate to the financial statements taken as a whole. And finally, we determine which of the identified risks are significant enough to require special audit consideration, then plan and execute our audit accordingly.

Further audit procedures – We also take into consideration the nature, timing and extent of tests of controls and substantive procedures necessary to address the risks identified. We select transactions for testing using various approaches, which may include specific identification of transactions or may involve sampling. When audit evidence obtained from the audit procedures results in the identification of previously unidentified risks of material misstatement or contradicts planned risk assessment procedures, we revise the assessment and plan and perform additional audit procedures to reduce risk of material misstatement related to those assertions to an acceptably low level.

Evaluation - At the conclusion of the audit, we evaluate the sufficiency and appropriateness of the audit evidence obtained and whether the assessments of the risks of material misstatement at the relevant assertion level remain appropriate. We may redesign planned audit procedures based on our evaluation. We also evaluate the effects, both individually and in aggregate, of factual, judgmental, and projected misstatements that are not corrected by your business. We communicate all misstatements identified during the audit, other than those we believe to be trivial, to management and the board of directors on a timely basis.

Delivery - Our audit culminates with the issuance of a report on the financial statements, a report on internal control over financial reporting, a report to the board of directors and, if necessary, a written communication discussing material weaknesses and significant deficiencies.

Post-Audit

GMA does not take the “finish the audit and see you next year” approach with its clients. `We stay engaged throughout the year, bringing updates, ideas for operational improvements, new accounting pronouncements or tax law changes to you.