Financial statement audits

A financial statement is the way you communicate about money matters with your taxpayers, bond holders, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders. We keep that in mind when conducting audits.

The Plante & Moran financial statement audit team has been working with governments for more than 60 years and has built a national reputation serving cities, villages, townships, counties, authorities and other government- related entities. Our clients range in population from less than 5,000 residents to more than 2 million residents. Their budgets range in size from a few million to over $1 billion.  

We share this experience with all our governmental clients. Yet we realize that each unit is unique and customize our services.  

The 200 Plante & Moran professionals that focus on financial statement audits bring their individual expertise and collaborate for exceptional thinking and problem solving. They are actively involved in professional organizations at local, state, and national levels, which helps them stay in front of regulatory, legislative, and compliance issues.

There have been numerous changes to governmental auditing standards since the collapse of  Enron and Worldcom. Among these changes are:

• SAS 99 — Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit
• SAS 112 — Communicating Internal Control Related Matters in an Audit
• SAS 114 — The Auditor’s Communication with Those Charged with Governance
• SASs 104-111 — Eight new risk assessment standards

To minimize the level of disruption to our clients, we have developed a number of tools to ensure that these new standards are implemented completely and appropriately.

It is another way we serve our governmental clients by combining our substantial industry expertise with strong technical abilities.

Financial Consultants for Governments

Our experience working with governmental entities has prepared us to provide a full menu of financial services to meet the specific needs of government such as multi-year financial models to help navigate into the future and feasibility studies for new or existing operations.  

We work with government utility operations such as water and sewer to analyze and set user fees.  

In the area of forensics, we have certified experts who can help avoid fraud by designing a preventative control system, policies, and procedures. In the event fraud has occurred, we also have forensic accountants certified in uncovering and documenting the losses.