This is typically a review of the final report which may consist of:

• Reading the report
• Compliance with professional standards
• Proofing and math check
• Wording suggestions where appropriate
• Tie out and consistency throughout the report including dates
• Trace report balances to trial balance and other workpapers
• What’s not in the report that should be

Note: these are typical review steps. The actual steps are different for each firm and as agreed upon with each engagement.

• Typically book-to-tax trial balance and support schedules
• Other workpapers, as needed which are usually engagement unique and outside the more challenging that standard workpapers.

• Original research 
• A second set of eyes
• Alternative report wording
• Other as requested

• The most common scenario is that a sole proprietor’s malpractice insurer requires that a CPA other than the sole proprietor perform this review.  This can be a staff CPA, but many times it’s more practical for the outside CPA to perform the services due to scheduling issues or lack of expertise of the staff.
• Of interest, the peer reviewers like it. I had it written in my quality control manual which always received positive comments
• To have a CPA with experience to add value to the firm’s entire process
• In this regard, I have performed this service for larger firms as well

Assistance
QuickBooks setup, chart of accounts,  classes, procedures, financial reporting and unique accounting and reporting scenarios.

Custom Financial Statements
QuickBooks generated financial statements may not meet your needs. I have been creating useful and statements that meet your specific needs since 1994 with proprietary and public tools coupled with my experience, knowledge and ability to understand your needs.

My services are requested and performed when there are real challenges in the accounting and reporting process. There are many bookkeepers and consultants that can help but most fall short when the needs become real and challenging. This is where my value comes in.

I have been a QuickBooks Pro Advisor since 1998, shortly after the program’s inception.

My History with Computerized Financial Statements
Computer generate financial statements have always been less than desirable. This is due to flexibility issues. Your “exact” financial statement today changes and to change the layout historically has been a real issue. Additionally, financial statements generated by the software had that “look”. I became a power user of Lotus 1-2-3 beginning with version 1A in 1983 and developed Lotus tools to link to the software and to generate professional looking and meaningful financial statements. Additionally, changes made in the accounting system would be automatically be updated in the custom version.

Quicken was released by Intuit in 1984. I quickly adopted its use to help with financial reporting. As a checkbook program it was extremely limited, however, with creative tweaks, it could be a useful tool for the smaller organization. The knowledge gained with these projects set the stage for QuickBooks when released in 1992.

Excel version 4 was also introduced in 1992, a huge upgrade over version 3 and was start of Excel’s dominance as the spreadsheet leader.

In these early days of QuickBooks, the financial statements it generated were crude at best. This allowed me to become a QuickBooks expert quickly and used my tools developed in Lotus to be expanded in Excel. While both QuickBooks and Excel were grabbing the market quickly, it still took a few years to officially become the market leaders. (Officially? Perhaps I should say to become mainstream.)

QuickBook Online (QBO) was released in 2001 and had a rough start. Even today, users are reluctant to jump in. My involvement and usage began in about 2016 and has become a significant part of my practice in 2022.

Fast forward to today (2025), QuickBooks Desktop is a solid market leader used by organizations of all sizes. While the financial reporting is much better, it still leaves a lot to be desired.  Excel has grown to be feature rich allowing me to greatly enhance my proprietary tools.

The term financial statements mentioned above is much more than traditional statements. They many times include special reporting, such as project accounting, contractual requirements, book vs tax, restricted and unrestricted funds, GAAP fund accounting, all linked to QuickBooks and updated automatically.

QuickBooks                          1992       
QuickBooks ProAdvisor    1998
QuickBooks Online            2022