How An Audit From Cook & Company Helps
You Run A Stronger Nonprofit

Your mission is your focus, but the money is the tool that supports your efforts. Taking care of
it is key to the success of everything your nonprofit does.

That’s why an audit can be so valuable to your organization. All the regulatory and technical
stuff aside, the main goal of an audit is to make sure you have professionally prepared
financial statements that tell an accurate and reliable story about your organization.

With Cook & Company, you also benefit from our expertise in the areas of best practices
and internal controls.This includes things like effectively separating duties, keeping track of
donor-restricted funds, and properly allocating expenses to different functions.

We also strive to make the process as stress-free as possible. Our goal is to help, not just
“find and report mistakes”, and this translates into an audit that’s thorough, useful, and
sometimes even fun!

When we’re done with the audit, we prepare a complete (and very professional-looking)
report that includes a complete set of full-disclosure audited financial statements. An
independent audit by an unbiased third party carries a lot of weight with, donors, grant
approval committees, corporate sponsors, and other stakeholders.

Even if you’re not legally required to have an independent audit, it can benefit your nonprofit
in the following ways:

• Get a better understanding of your organization’s finances. Get a clear picture of your
  nonprofit’s financial activities and position and discover what you can do to maintain a good
  understanding of your books all year, not just at audit time.
• Improve your nonprofit’s ranking. Charity “watchdog” groups put a great emphasis on
  financial accountability and transparency. An independent audit helps demonstrate your
  organization’s integrity.
• Be ready for opportunities. It’s common for government funders, corporate sponsors, and
  foundation grant applications to request an audit report. Having a professional, reliable and
  current report on hand means you don’t have to scramble to put one together and possibly
  miss the chance to win over donors.
• Protect what you’ve achieved. Disorganized finances can lead to negative, unintended
  consequences, such as unreliable financial statements, noncompliance with donor
  requirements, violations of government regulations, and even fraud! Well-designed policies
  and procedures and an independent audit create accountability and help protect the funds
  you worked so hard to get.