At Clearline Consulting CPA, we believe all practitioners, no matter how small their business, deserve to work with advisors they can trust to set them up for success, ease their workload and provide ongoing support and guidance. Our services exist to help you feel confident, connected, and in the know.
Compliance
File Monitoring
Canadian quality control standards require assurance firms to perform regular file monitoring. We challenge clients to stop thinking of this process as “just another administrative task” that needs to be crossed off their to-do list. Our approach to file monitoring makes it a value-added process aimed at helping clients improve the quality of their engagement files and increase file documentation efficiencies. Contact us to learn more.
Engagement Quality Control Reviews (EQCR)
Whether you need an EQCR to comply with your quality control policies, to mitigate an independence issue or as a result of the requirements of your practice inspection we can help. We conduct EQCRs in accordance with the requirements set out in Canadian Standard on Quality Control 1 (CSQC 1) and work with you to ensure that your file is compliant with professional standards.
Quality Control
The control environment in a public practice firm is just as important as in any other business. Standards require us to have quality control manuals but the mere existence of a manual does not ensure that what goes out of your door is of the highest quality possible. Firm’s need tailored policies and procedures that they live by to ensure quality in their deliverables. We can customize your quality control/assurance manual to be compliant with the quality control standards and meet the specific needs of your practice.
Financial Statement Compliance Reviews
One of the leading cause of failures in assurance engagements is misstatements found in financial statement presentation and disclosure. With engagement teams often so heavily involved in the preparation of financial statements for their clients, it can become easy to miss things – after all we are human. We can provide you with a second look to ensure your ASPE, ASNPO and IFRS financial statements are in compliance with accounting standards.
Tax Reviews
Consider reviewing your largest corporate clients to ensure that their estate and succession plan is adequate. What happens if they die? Are they adequately prepared for any tax impact? Do they want to be pro-active in taking steps to reduce their estate tax burden? Contact us today to find out more about our ability to review your client’s situation and facilitate a discussion with them on these sensitive issues.
Tools and Training
Professional Development Courses
We author and facilitate PD courses on behalf of the CPA profession that can be taken via the provincial CPA bodies, such as CPABC, as well as at conferences and other events across Western Canada.
For firms looking for a more personal touch, we also provide customized in-house professional development sessions. We work with clients to identify and build a professional development plan tailored to the needs of their teams.
Our course offerings include topics on auditing, review engagements, compilation engagements, quality control, accounting standards such as ASPE, and much more. To find out where and when we are speaking, you can refer to our events page which includes the courses offered through the profession and our attendance at conferences and other events. If you are interested in a customized, in-house session give us a call to get started.
Staff Training Programs
Our training programs are specifically tailored to help firms build the capacity of their team members. These programs are designed to address the needs of new CPAs and assurance seniors, as well as develop internal leadership through our manager training programs. By identifying and investing in senior staff, our clients set their firms up for long-term success. Call us at 778.375.3101 to discuss your training needs.
Resources
We provide a number of resources on our website. Our Special Reports tackle the big picture issues facing public practitioners today. Our Clear-Cut series provides summaries of important standards, as well as specific guidance on common accounting and assurance issues and how to navigate them. If you are in need of a specific resource contact us to discuss customized tools and guidance.
Advice and Inspiration
TOSI Planning
The tax on split income (TOSI) rules are extremely complex, cumbersome, and in some cases, subjective. However, there are still opportunities to split income! Having the appropriate structure and right fact pattern is important to facilitate income splitting. Contact us today to review your structure and compensation planning to see if there is still abilities to split income.
Sale or Purchase of a Practice / Succession Planning
Looking to sell a public practice firm? We can help you find suitable practitioners / firms to purchase your practice and help guide you through the process. Looking to transition your firm to a key staff member but you’re not confident that they are quite ready to take the reins? We can assist by training and mentoring them to help facilitate a smoother transition and avoid business interruptions. Looking to buy a practice or block of clients, give us a call and we will likely be able to find some suitable targets for you.
Practice Inspection Action Plans
Most practice reviews of assurance firms, whether successful or not, require the firm to respond in writing to the practice review officer’s findings. If you are looking for guidance with interpreting your reports and in drafting your response, we can help.
Audit/Assurance Planning
We work with engagement teams to help them through audit planning discussions and file preparation. The goal is to ensure our clients are focusing on addressing engagement risks and meeting professional standards. We can also help identify ways to improve file documentation, and increase process and task efficiencies. Contact us to learn more.
Other Consulting Services
Our team is available for ongoing, as-needed technical advice and consulting services, including technical opinions on assurance matters. We can also help firms improve client communications to ensure compliance with CAS and superior client service. Facing a challenge or have a question? We can help. Call us at 778.375.3101.