Financial Audit & Assurance Services in Jersey City, NJ & NY

Gary Mehta, CPA, EA has been forming that trust since 2007. With our strong community ties in Jersey City, We've got to know a lot of businesses and their financial records. No matter the business industry, one thing hs constant. Accurate and organized records demonstrate transparency and help make more informative business decisions.  Professionals at our firm are proactive in making sure that financial statements accurately depict health of business. 

For any growing business, the words “financial audit” can sound intimidating. But what if you viewed an audit not as a hurdle, but as a powerful tool for building trust, unlocking capital, and strengthening your company from the inside out? In today’s complex business environment, stakeholders—from investors and lenders to regulatory bodies—demand confidence in your financial reporting. Audited financial statements provide the highest level of assurance that your financial records are accurate and reliable. A financial audit also includes a thorough review of the company's accounting policies to ensure accuracy and compliance.

This is where a trusted, independent partner becomes essential. Since 2007, Gary Mehta, CPA, EA has been building that trust with businesses throughout Jersey City, New York, and the tristate area. Our deep community ties have shown us that regardless of the industry, one thing is constant: transparent and accurate financial information is the bedrock of smart business decisions. A financial audit serves as a thorough examination of your company’s financial health, providing clarity and credibility that resonates with stakeholders.

Our firm’s professionals are proactive, ensuring that the company's financial statements fairly represent your company’s financial position through careful preparation and verification. We specialize in providing a spectrum of assurance services, from comprehensive financial statement audits to reviews and compilations, each tailored to the specific needs of your organization.

Maintaining transparency in financial reporting is essential for building stakeholder trust.

Here’s what you need to know about the world of financial audits and assurance:

• Levels of Assurance: There are three main types of assurance services: Compilations (presenting your data with no assurance), Reviews (providing limited assurance through inquiry and analytical procedures), and Audits (providing the highest level of reasonable assurance through a detailed examination).
• Purpose of a Financial Audit: An external audit is an independent examination of your financial statements conducted by a CPA. Its primary focus is to provide an auditor’s opinion on whether the statements are free from material misstatement and conform to the applicable financial reporting framework.
• Driven by Need: Companies seek audited financial statements to meet requirements from lenders, investors (like venture capital and private equity), government contracts, and regulatory bodies.
• More Than Just Numbers: A key part of the audit process involves a risk assessment and an evaluation of your company’s internal controls. This can help identify weaknesses in your operations and protect against financial mismanagement.
• The CPA is Essential: Only an external auditor, who is an independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA), can perform an audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS). Their independence is critical to the credibility of the audit report.
• Building Stakeholder Confidence: Ultimately, a financial audit enhances your company’s reputation and boosts investor confidence by providing a transparent and professionally vetted view of your financial performance.

While often used together, “audit” and “assurance” represent a spectrum of services designed to instill confidence in a company’s financial reporting. Financial auditing is the systematic examination of a company's financial records and statements to ensure accuracy and compliance. At our accounting firm, we offer all three primary levels of assurance to meet the diverse needs of businesses in New Jersey and New York.

A compilation is the most basic of these services. In a compilation, our accountants take your financial data and present it in the format of formal financial statements (like the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement).

• Purpose: Useful for internal management review or when a business needs professionally formatted statements without requiring any level of assurance.
• Assurance Level: None. We do not perform any testing or analytical procedures, so we do not express an audit opinion or any form of assurance on the accuracy of the financial information.

A review provides a higher level of service and limited assurance. It is narrower in scope than a full audit but can satisfy many third-party requirements.

• Purpose: Often required by banks for loans or by certain investors who need more confidence than a compilation provides, but not the depth of a full audit.
• Process: A review primarily consists of inquiry with the organization's management and performing analytical procedures on the financial data. We assess whether the financial statements seem plausible and are free of obvious material misstatements.
• Assurance Level: Limited. We provide a report stating that we are not aware of any material modifications needed for the statements to be in conformity with the applicable accounting standards.

The financial audit is the pinnacle of assurance services. It is a comprehensive and thorough examination of your company's financial statements and related financial disclosures.

• Purpose: To provide the highest level of reasonable assurance that the financial statements are fairly presented. This is required by many lenders, investors, regulatory bodies, and for specific circumstances like employee benefit plan audits.
• Process: The audit process is extensive. It is conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) and involves detailed audit planning, risk assessment, testing of internal control systems, and significant substantive testing of transactions and balances.
• Assurance Level: Reasonable Assurance. The outcome is a formal audit report containing the CPA’s audit opinion.

A clear grasp of financial statements and accounting standards is fundamental for anyone looking to assess a company’s financial health. Financial statements—including the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement—offer a comprehensive snapshot of a business’s financial position, performance, and cash flows. These documents are the foundation of financial reporting, allowing stakeholders to evaluate profitability, liquidity, and long-term viability.

To ensure that financial statements fairly represent a company’s financial position, they must be prepared in accordance with established accounting standards such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These standards provide a consistent framework for recording and presenting financial data, making it easier to compare results across periods and between organizations.

Certified public accountants (CPAs) play a pivotal role in this process. Through their expertise, they ensure that financial records are accurate and that financial statements comply with all relevant accounting standards. Whether through external audits or internal audits, CPAs provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement and reflect the true financial health of the organization. This rigorous approach not only supports regulatory compliance but also builds trust with investors, lenders, and other stakeholders who rely on accurate financial reporting to make informed decisions.

A financial audit serves numerous critical purposes beyond simply “checking the books.” It is a strategic process that can unlock opportunities and safeguard your business’s future.

A financial audit provides an objective assessment of the company's financial data, supporting transparency and informed decision-making.

The most common driver for a financial statement audit is a request from an external party. This can include:

• Lenders and Creditors: Banks often require audited financial statements before extending significant credit.
• Investors: Venture capital and private equity firms (a specialty of our firm) conduct due diligence that almost always includes an audit to verify the company’s financial position.
• Government Agencies: Contracts with government entities frequently require audits.
• Regulatory Compliance: Certain entities, such as non-profits, homeowner associations (HOAs), and employee benefit plans, are legally required to undergo regular audits.
• Public Companies: A public company is legally required to undergo regular financial audits to comply with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and oversight by the PCAOB.

A robust audit process includes a detailed examination of your company’s internal controls. This evaluation can identify weaknesses in your procedures that could expose your business to fraud, error, or financial mismanagement. Evaluating the company's operations is a key part of the audit process, as operational effectiveness directly impacts financial reporting. The insights from an audit can lead to improved operational efficiency and stronger safeguards for your assets.

Presenting audited financial statements sends a powerful message. It demonstrates a commitment to transparency and financial accuracy. This significantly enhances your company's reputation and can be a deciding factor for potential investors, partners, and customers. It shows that an independent, objective party has scrutinized your financial health.

If you are planning to sell your business, merge with another company, or plan for succession, an audit provides a credible valuation foundation. Audited financial statements streamline the due diligence process and can lead to a more favorable outcome.

At Gary Mehta, CPA, EA, our objective is to provide clear and correct information. We are committed to building confidence and trust by performing thorough due diligence on the businesses we audit. We understand how heavily stakeholders rely on the accuracy and transparency of financial information to make better business decisions, and we are determined to give them a comprehensive and accurate depiction of your financial records. This mindset on providing high-quality information is central to our mission. 

We believe in demystifying the audit process. Our approach is collaborative and structured, designed to be thorough yet efficient. The audit process also plays a critical role in ensuring regulatory compliance by verifying adherence to relevant laws and standards. Here’s what you can expect when working with our Certified Public Accountants.

The foundation of a successful audit is meticulous audit planning. We begin by meeting with your team to understand your company's operations, its industry, and the applicable financial reporting framework (like GAAP). The primary focus of this stage is a comprehensive risk assessment, where we identify areas with the highest potential for material misstatement or financial risks.

Next, we perform a detailed examination of your company's internal controls. Are there proper checks and balances in your accounting processes? Is there adequate segregation of duties? We test these controls to determine how much we can rely on them. Strong internal control systems can often lead to a more efficient audit.

This is the "deep dive" phase of the audit. Our team performs substantive testing to gather sufficient, appropriate audit evidence. These substantive procedures may include:

• Transaction Testing: Examining individual transactions to ensure they are recorded correctly.
• Confirmations: Contacting third parties (like banks or customers) to confirm balances.
• Physical Inspection: Observing inventory counts or inspecting physical assets.
• Data Analytics: Using statistical analysis and software to test large populations of financial data.
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After completing our fieldwork, we analyze the audit results and form a conclusion. This conclusion is formally presented in the audit report, which contains our auditor's opinion. The opinion states whether we believe the organization's financial statements are fairly presented, in all material respects. An "unqualified" or "clean" opinion is the best possible outcome and provides the reasonable assurance stakeholders are looking for.

The landscape of financial audits is rapidly evolving, thanks to advancements in technology that are reshaping the auditing process. Today’s auditors leverage powerful tools such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based platforms to conduct more thorough and efficient audits. These technologies enable auditors to analyze vast amounts of financial data, perform sophisticated analytical procedures, and identify trends or anomalies that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Automated software streamlines tasks like substantive testing and audit evidence collection, allowing auditors to focus on areas that require professional judgment and insight. By enhancing the quality and depth of audit evidence, technology reduces the risk of human error and increases the reliability of audit results. Additionally, real-time collaboration tools facilitate seamless communication between auditors, management, and audit committees, ensuring that everyone stays informed throughout the auditing process.

As the demands on financial reporting grow, embracing technology is essential for delivering high-quality, efficient, and accurate financial audits. By integrating advanced data analytics and automation into the audit process, firms can provide stakeholders with greater confidence in the integrity of financial information.

A strong audit committee is a cornerstone of effective corporate governance, playing a vital role in safeguarding the integrity of a company’s financial reporting. The audit committee is tasked with overseeing the entire audit process, from selecting and working with external auditors to reviewing audit plans and evaluating audit results. This oversight ensures that the company’s financial statements are accurate, reliable, and prepared in accordance with applicable standards.

An effective audit committee is independent and composed of members with the expertise to understand complex financial issues. Their objective perspective is crucial for providing unbiased evaluation and guidance to both management and auditors. Regular meetings, transparent communication, and a well-structured audit plan enable the committee to address potential issues proactively and ensure that the audit process runs smoothly.

By upholding rigorous standards in financial reporting, the audit committee helps maintain investor confidence and protects the interests of all stakeholders. Their commitment to transparency and accountability not only enhances the company’s reputation but also supports long-term business success in today’s highly regulated environment.

Let us help you get proper accounting records to feel more confident in your business decisions. 

While we have a satellite office in Bridgewater, We provide assurance and auditing services from our Jersey City offices to companies across New Jersey, New York and Beyond.