Services Archive - Page 2 of 3 - Atherton & Associates, LLP

Trust Planning and Charitable Gifting

While planning your trust, you can choose to distribute money to any number of qualified charitable organizations either in your will or over the course of your life. Although there are a myriad of ways to achieve this, we’ve listed some of the common ways to give charitably through trust planning.

Revocable/Irrevocable Trusts

Revocable and irrevocable trusts are a simple way of providing a donation. Revocable trusts distribute income earned to the grantor, and after death, property is transferred to the beneficiaries. These trusts dictate that provisions can be altered or canceled at the decision of the grantor. Irrevocable trusts, on the other hand, cannot be modified or canceled without the express permission of the beneficiaries.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable trust which first provides income to beneficiaries for a designated length of time before donating the remainder to a charity. It reduces an individual’s taxable income that permits a trustor to be eligible for a partial tax deduction.

Charitable Lead Trusts

Charitable lead trusts are also irrevocable trusts which provide assets to one or more charities. After the designated length of time, remaining assets are distributed to beneficiaries. This means that you can donate these funds to charitable causes during your lifetime or other designated period, as well as retain assets for other beneficiaries.

Retirement Accounts

Another tax-smart estate planning strategy might include donating retirement assets to charity. Retirement assets tend to be some of the highest-taxed assets in an estate—and also one of the largest pool of assets that many people have.

Even with careful consideration, trust planning is far from simple. For more information about how to incorporate charitable giving into your financial plan, contact Atherton & Associates, LLP.

Audited Financial Statements

Are you required to have audited financial statements? Often lenders, granting agencies or even your board of directors can require an audit. An audit provides the highest level of assurance and its purpose is to add credibility to the performance of an entity.

Over ten years ago, Atherton & Associates, LLP identified the need to create a separate department, specifically assigned to oversee audit and assurance engagements. We are one of the only local firms in the Central Valley to have an audit and assurance department. By being departmentalized, our highly-trained staff is able to offer clients efficiencies and expertise during the audit process.

When it comes to the audits themselves, Atherton & Associates, LLP has extensive experience in auditing employee benefit plans, not for profit organizations including those requiring single audits in accordance with the Uniform Grant Guidance regulation, and for-profit private entities in various industries such as construction, agriculture, and real estate. For more information about audits or if you would like a proposal for audit services, please contact Loren Kuntz, Partner or Marissa Williams, Partner at Atherton & Associates, LLP (209) 577-4800.

Reviewed Financial Statements

A reviewed financial statement provides more assurance than a compilation but less than an audit. A reviewed financial statement engagement consists primarily of analytical procedures performed on specific account balances for reasonableness along with inquiries with company management.

Compiled Financial Statements

A compiled financial statement is prepared using our knowledge of accounting principles and understanding of your business. We create financial statements that are the representation of management and we do not express an opinion or any form of assurance on the statements.

Employee Benefit Plan Audits

One of our firm’s largest audit niches is in the area of employee benefit plan audits. Our clients range from plans with only a few hundred participant accounts and 400 thousand in net assets to those with thousands of participant accounts and more than 340 million in net assets.

Your Plan would benefit from our risk-based audit approach as well as the timely and effective communication and coordination that differentiates our audit process. With appropriate cooperation from the record-keeper and plan sponsor, we are committed to meeting the July 31st deadline so that an extension of time to file will not be necessary.

Atherton, has been a member of the AICPA Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center since 2008. Our Firm stays up to date on all the hot topics that are affecting employee benefit plans so that we are always one step ahead in ensuring your plan is in compliance with ERISA reporting requirements and the regulations required by the Department of Labor (DOL).

Audits in Accordance with Uniform Grant Guidance

Audits are an intimidating but very natural part of owning any business or entity that receives more than $750,000 in federal grants or awards. These audits involve an assessment of financial statements and an audit of the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). It’s during this audit that testing is performed in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) compliance requirements.

There are 12 requirements that are generally tested for in each program, although not all of them are applicable to every grant. As mentioned, these audits can be intimidating and stressful for any entity requiring one—that’s why we at Atherton & Associates, LLP want to help.

Receiving a Single Audit

The Director of the OMB has the authority to develop audit policies that comply with the Single Audit Act. There is where the Uniform Guidance regulation stems from—one of the more recent OMB regulations that detail uniform cost principles and audit requirements that track the aforementioned rewards to non-federal entities.

What’s Allowed with Uniform Grant Guidance?

There are rules when it comes to determining what is allowed to be charged to a grant. Grants are distributed to entities for a myriad of purposes and are distributed by many agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and so much more. But grant-funded activities must align with the agencies from which the grant was received—you can’t use a USDA grant to fund a cafe, for example.

But then how do you know what is allowable for the grant? Thankfully, each grant should come with a grant agreement. Normally the proposal for a grant is filled out with the knowledge of what the grant will be used for before it’s received.

Although, as anyone in charge of a project knows, scope creep is inevitable—and occasionally, a change in scope can mean infringing on activities that are not allowed by the grant. Before spending, it’s always wise to check with the granting agency.

When it comes to the audits themselves, Atherton & Associates, LLP has extensive experience in conducting single audits in accordance with the Uniform Grant Guidance regulation. For more information about the specifics of grant audits, contact Atherton & Associates, LLP.

Outsourced Accounting

If you own a small business or nonprofit, then you’re no stranger to doing—or to consider doing—your own accounting.

However, it’s far from what most small business owners might prefer to be doing with their valuable time. The fact remains that accounting management is an integral part of owning a business—but it doesn’t have the be the owner’s burden alone.

Perhaps, in the beginning, it can be easy to keep track of a business’ financial accounts, but when the business starts to grow, in both staffing and revenue, it becomes harder to keep track of.

What is Outsourced Accounting?

Outsourced accounting is the process of allowing an outside firm to take over your accounting tasks. These tasks can include things such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, coding, payroll, among many others.

What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing Your Accounting?

There is a myriad of benefits that you can have such as:

High-Quality Information
Accountants are up-to-date on the latest laws and have access to the current technology being used by accountants. This will help provide you with a lot of information that you may have not otherwise seen if you had done your accounting work in-house.

Less Mistakes Making a mistake in your accounting can be highly expensive and can make you go out of business. Outsourcing your accounting also means that you place the responsibility of any mistakes on the firm handling your work, therefore minimizing the amount of risk that comes with the mistakes made on your own.

Labor Savings
Whether you work on your own accounting or hire someone internally to work on it, you’ll be saving time and money by having someone outside of your business handle the work.

Higher Profitability
It’ll allow you to focus on other aspects of your business such as sales, especially if you’re focusing a part of your day to work on the day-to-day accounting functions. This, in turn, can allow you to grow your business, while not forgetting your business obligations.

Who Can Benefit from Outsourced Accounting?

Anybody can benefit from it. From the small business owner who might not have the budget or time to work on their accounting to a billion-dollar business that does not want to have a large accounting department.

When to Look at Outsourced Accounting?

That tends to be the tipping point: when an owner can no longer be directly involved in each aspect of their business. It’s a crucial time to look into outsourced accounting for help with billing, collections, payroll, sales, bank account reconciliation, and financial statements. Not to mention, there are other compelling reasons to look into outsourced accounting, such as the fact that it can save businesses a lot of money compared to conducting accounting in-house. Outsourced accounting can save money by cutting out the need to hire a full-time or part-time employee. All you as the business owner pay for is the accounting, saving you money on both productivity and payroll.

For more information about how to outsource your accounting needs, contact Atherton & Associates, LLP.

Interim CFO/Controller

Not every business has—or needs— a permanent Chief Financial Officer or Controller. However, that doesn’t mean that a company doesn’t still need that strong financial leadership. Whether your company is still in its early stages, or you’re looking to make major changes and transitions, an interim CFO or Controller can be integral for ensuring no gaps are left in financial management.

What is an Interim CFO/Controller?

An interim CFO or Controller partners with the company and provides guidance to the executives concerning financial management. They are finance experts that come in, typically on a full-time basis, for a span of a few months and can help businesses with a myriad of tasks. These tasks can include assisting companies through financial crises, major transitions, sales, or merely bridging the gap between the previous CFO/Controller and a new one.

How Do I Know if I Need One?

Generally, a company will call in an interim CFO or Controller in times of crises or transition. If your business is undergoing a large executive change and numbers need to be visited—but only for a short time—it’s recommended that you choose an interim finance expert from a trusted firm.

At Atherton & Associates, LLP, our interim CFOs and Controllers are experienced and ready to provide only the most crucial financial leadership and results for businesses in any sector.

Internal Control Design

A company’s processes can be one of the most crucial parts of a business’ plan. In accounting, there’s a process called “internal control” that analyzes an organization’s productivity, financial reporting, and compliance with regulations. It’s a broad definition, but internal control itself is a broad and integral measure—especially for detecting and preventing fraud.

What is Internal Control?

In a business, internal control chiefly concerns the reliability of financial reporting, the documentation of operational goals, and compliance to regulations. Implementing internal control into a business helps in reducing process variation, which in turn can lead to more efficacious planning on business side.

Internal control can also be integral for detecting fraud, and other scenarios where theft or loss may occur. It can minimize risk in a way that may prove crucial for some businesses. Typically, internal control can manifest in three common methods:

Weekly reviews of balances, by both accounting and upper management.
The distinct separation of duties, so that it’s not just one person in charge of finances.
Required approval from upper management.

Designing controls to run more efficiently and effectively can take a number of forms—such as, automating those controls that are currently manual. One pitfall of some businesses is that they view internal control exclusively as a measure to prevent fraud, instead of how it can be used to streamline processes.

Because internal control can take so many forms, it can sometimes be intimidating to design. You can trust the experts at Atherton & Associates, LLP to help you with your internal control needs.

Organizational Planning

Atherton and Associates brings organizational planning to a new level. Whether bringing in a new member to the executive team or adding staff throughout the year, we are here to help you in planning for growth effectively. Our experience in organizational planning can assist you in identifying what roles will be needed as you grow.