Ah, the end of the accounting year. It’s a highly stressful time for corporate accounting teams— especially if your company is required to complete an external audit. The end of the fiscal year adds many to-dos to your accounting staff’s list of duties, which already includes month-end close and any quarterly reporting.
If this period has historically brought unwelcome chaos to your accounting team, it’s time for a change. Hiring accounting and finance contractors to assist you with your year-end accounting checklist can alleviate stress and help you meet important deadlines. This is especially important as you gear up for your year-end audit.
Here are a few ways contractors can help lighten your load with those important year-end tasks:
Assistance with the Prepared by Client (PBC) list – Your auditors will provide a detailed (and lengthy) list of supporting documentation and information that your accounting team should prepare ahead of their fieldwork—both for interim testing and for the final audit work. Despite your best intentions, it can be difficult to carve out time to get these things together before the auditors arrive. That can cause your auditors delays, however, leading to a more costly and drawn-out process. A contractor can help you get those PBC list items ready. Those might include:
- Final year-end trial balance
- Draft year-end financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows
- Current chart of accounts
- Organizational chart
- Board of directors list and copies of board meeting minutes
- Copies of new leases, contracts, loans or other debt instruments, etc.
- List of journal entries made throughout the year
- Cash and investment documentation:
- Bank statements
- Bank reconciliations
- Check register and copies of checks over a certain amount
- Inventory listings
- Fixed asset schedule
- Depreciation schedule
- Accounts receivable aging report
- Accounts payable aging report
- Accruals schedule as of year end
- Annual budgets
- ….and more
Keep in mind that if this isn’t your first year-end audit, chances are your auditors will request much of the same information they did last year. This underscores the importance of keeping your digital files organized year to year!
Catching up on past reconciliations – If completing account reconciliations has fallen to the wayside for your busy accounting staff, a contractor can step in to help you catch back up. They can also make sure all reconciliations have appropriate supporting documentation (e.g., bank statements) and note any differences between third-party records and the general ledger (so you can deal with discrepancies before the audit starts). They’ll also help create rollforwards. If your reconciliation process has been less than streamlined, the contractor can also help create reconciliation checklists for your staff to make their jobs easier.
Need more expertise? Consultants might be the answer.
If your staff needs extra help checking off those year-end checklist items, TGRP Solutions’ contractor staffing services are a good solution. Our accounting and finance contractors can tackle that PBC list and get your financial statements prepared and reconciliations caught up for a smooth year-end close and audit.
If you need more technical or high-level support, our consulting services might be best. Maybe you are dealing with a change that will require additional disclosures—a revenue recognition issue or a corporate reorganization, for example. TGRP consultants can support you after your audit, whether you need reporting process improvement, IPO support, SEC report quality control reviews, or something else.
Contact us to learn more by reaching out or calling 303.789.1500.
