M&A is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). As part of the membership, M&A is subjected to its peer review program for engagements applicable to non-SEC issuers. M&A received a rating of “pass” on its most recent and prior peer reviews on the firm’s system of quality control for its accounting and auditing practice. Engagements selected for review included engagements performed under Government Auditing Standards and audits of employee benefit plans.
M&A is also a member of the following AICPA Centers:
As member of the Center for Audit Quality, the Center enhances investor confidence and public trust in the global capital markets by fostering high quality performance public company audits and advocating policies and standards that promote our firm’s objectivity, effectiveness and responsiveness to dynamic market conditions. As part of the memberships, the firm’s peer review is administered by the National Peer Review Committee.
The Center assists the members to meet the challenges of performing quality audits in the unique and complex area of employee benefit plans.
As part of the membership, M&A has been an active participant of the National Conference on Employee Benefit Plans. M&A continues to participate in the conference held on an annual basis so that the ERISA team stays current with current professional standards, rules and regulations.
Many CPA firms audit employee benefit plans at lower fees, but their audits may be sub-standard and may be rejected by the Department of Labor due to sub-standard audit issues as they may not be aware of the professional standards, rules and regulations of this complex and highly regulated area.
M&A has been approved as a registrant with PCAOB as of September 18, 2003 and is subjected to the inspection program of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for engagements performed which are applicable to SEC issuers. M&A received a clean opinion on its most recent and prior inspections of the firm’s Audit Engagements and Quality Control System performed by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
M&A’s policy is to use only experienced personnel in our engagements. Our personnel have been specifically trained and have the competence to handle the most frequently encountered problems of financial reporting, accounting systems, and taxes, which are common in various organizations.
Our experienced personnel will allow us to complete the engagement without wasted effort on our part and reduce the amount of time that you must be involved. In addition, we will continue to return the same experienced personnel to the engagement in the following years in order to provide you with the same effective quality services.
Our audit staff has extensive knowledge on the various general ledger packages and other accounting and auditing software.
Our firm’s policy is to provide our staff with a minimum of 40 CPE hours each year. The CPE hours are obtained either through universities, in-house training, California Society of CPA’s and AICPA’s various conferences and seminars in the areas of accounting and auditing, tax and computer technology.