Six types. Financial statement audits, PCAOB audits for public companies and registration statements, single audits under Uniform Guidance, employee benefit plan audits, SOC reports, and reviews and compilations. The firm is PCAOB registered and belongs to the AICPA, including both the Governmental Audit Quality Center and the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center.

An audit gives reasonable assurance, the highest level available, through independent testing, confirmations and control walkthroughs, ending in a formal opinion. A review gives limited assurance through analytical procedures and inquiry, without testing the underlying records. Below that, a compilation gives no assurance and simply presents management's figures in financial statement format. Read the requirement that triggered the question, since it usually names one specifically.

Companies facing a lender covenant, an investor or acquirer requirement, or an SEC filing. Organizations spending federal awards above the threshold need a single audit. Retirement plans reaching 100 participants with account balances need a benefit plan audit. Outside those triggers, many companies buy an audit when a review would have satisfied the requirement.

Generally when it spends $1 million or more in federal awards during a fiscal year, counting direct federal grants, state pass-through money and subawards together. That threshold rose from $750,000 under 2 CFR 200.501. The Federal Audit Clearinghouse applies it by the auditee's fiscal year. Fiscal years starting before October 1, 2024 use $750,000, while later ones use $1 million. It counts expenditures rather than awards received, and organizations regularly miss the pass-through portion. The single audit is separate from the Form 990, with its own deadline and its own submission route.

Generally once participant counts cross the applicable threshold. That is commonly around 100 participants with account balances at the start of the plan year, subject to DOL transition rules. The counting method changed for plan years beginning in 2023, since previously every eligible employee counted. Separately, the 80-120 rule can let a plan in that range file in the prior year's category. Many sponsors have not recalculated, and some commission audits they no longer need.

A SOC report gives assurance over a service organization's controls to customers who cannot inspect those controls themselves. SOC 1 covers controls affecting customer financial reporting. Meanwhile SOC 2 covers security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy. The request usually comes from a customer's procurement or risk team rather than from a regulator, often during a contract renewal.

Timelines vary with size, complexity and the state of the records. Most private company audits run six to twelve weeks from kick-off to issued opinion, and a first audit runs longer because nothing has been tested before. We set the timeline at the start and plan fieldwork around your reporting deadline rather than ours.

Bank statements and reconciliations, trial balance and general ledger, receivable and payable aging, fixed asset and depreciation schedules, inventory records, loan agreements, contracts, payroll records, prior-year tax returns and board minutes. Industry-specific items are added on top, such as cost of goods sold documentation for cannabis or stock compensation calculations for technology companies. We issue a tailored request list at kick-off.

It depends on which audit. Under SEC and PCAOB standards the answer is no, since those rules prohibit auditing statements the firm helped produce. In a private company audit driven by a lender, investor or board, the AICPA framework is different and often permits both, provided management takes responsibility for the records, the arrangement is documented, and appropriate safeguards are in place. GreenGrowth CPAs delivers bookkeeping, outsourced CFO, tax and audit, so we establish at the outset which combination your situation permits rather than assuming the strictest rule applies.

Yes, and it has done so since 2016. Cannabis audits differ in specific ways: IRC 280E drives cost of goods sold allocation, inventory has to tie to the state seed-to-sale system rather than the ledger alone, and licence conditions can create going concern questions. PCAOB registration and deep cannabis-sector audit experience rarely overlap, and GreenGrowth CPAs holds both.

We provide audit and assurance services across cannabis, technology and SaaS, real estate, life sciences, nonprofits, school districts, public agencies, PEOs and payroll organizations, professional services, and mining and resources. Industry matters where the accounting genuinely differs, because a generalist meets those rules for the first time on your engagement. Tell us your sector and reporting requirement and we will say plainly whether we are the right firm.

Start with the covenant language itself, since it usually names a specific level of assurance. A requirement for reviewed financial statements does not need a full audit, although buying one anyway is a common and expensive mistake. Send us the requirement and we will read it, then confirm which engagement it calls for and give a realistic timeline.

Yes, and referrals from bankers, investors, board members and attorneys are a normal route into audit work. Send us the requirement rather than a description of it, since the document usually names the level of assurance. Then we confirm independence upfront, commit to a timeline at engagement, and where the client agrees we keep the referring party updated.