When a license is needed, and when the books stay here.

What people usually mean.

Most owners who look for a firm want the books kept, the return prepared, and someone to call in July. That work stays here. Assurance on the statements, whether that is an audit or a review or a compilation, is work for a firm that holds the license to sign it.

When the cover names an audit or a review or a compilation, that signature leaves this practice and we say so before any month is opened. The books, the return, payroll setup on a provider you run, the franchise report, a notice that asks for records, and the decisions before December stay here.

The credential limit is written once, on the Disclosures page, with the rest of the line. What you get on this page is a split between a signed opinion and the months we can close.

How a lender usually reads the name.

A smaller loan for a company here often wants the tax returns, the books behind them, what you owe, and a recent month you will call closed. We do not lend the money. Many of those files want a match. Only some of them want a signed report.

A host who gets asked for last year's statements before a deposit is firm is holding two different requests. We read the cover with you. The statements and a signed audit are not the same request, and we say which one this file can answer.

Read the cover before you worry about a fee. The word on the cover decides which work it is. The months decide whether the file can go out at all.

After you know which work it is.

If it is an audit, a review, or a compilation, you leave with a clear no and a better question for a firm that can sign. If it is everything else, the next step is the same one as the rest of this site. Close the months. Prepare the return from those months. Look at what December can still change.

Nothing here argues with the people who sign audits. That work is real. It is just not what most owners needed when they went looking for help with the books.

People open a directory because a bank, a buyer, or a landlord asked for a firm. The ask and the signature are not always the same thing. Reading the cover takes less time than hiring the wrong help and starting over.

If you are already talking with a firm that can sign, the months can still be cleaned up here so their report has something solid under it. The two kinds of work can sit beside each other. They should not be pretended into one name.

Bring the cover, not a summary of it. One sentence from the ask is usually enough to sort the afternoon. The months still decide whether anything can go out at all.

Bring the cover as it is written. We will say whether the signature stays here or leaves, before any month is opened.