Financial Statement & Internal Audit Services
When a bank, a bonding company, or a board needs more than a tax return — compiled and reviewed financial statements, internal audit, and internal control work from a peer-reviewed Texas CPA who is also a Certified Internal Auditor.
Our most recent peer review, administered by the Texas Society of CPAs under the AICPA Peer Review Program, concluded with a rating of pass. Read the report (PDF).
Three Levels of Service — Pick the One You Actually Need
Lenders, sureties, and investors ask for very different things, and paying for more assurance than the request calls for is a common and expensive mistake. Here's what separates the three, and what each one costs you in time and money.
Preparation
No assurance. We build your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement in proper format from your books — monthly, quarterly, or annually. Right for internal management reporting, board packets, and getting clean numbers in front of a lender before a formal request arrives.
Governed by SSARS AR-C 70. No report attached, no independence requirement.
Compilation
No assurance, with a CPA report. We present management's financial statements in GAAP (or another agreed framework) and attach a formal compilation report on firm letterhead. This is what most community banks, commercial landlords, and SBA lenders mean when they ask for "CPA-prepared financials."
Governed by SSARS AR-C 80. Independence may be disclosed rather than required.
Review
Limited assurance. We perform analytical procedures and inquiry to conclude that we are not aware of any material modifications needed for the statements to conform with the applicable framework. This is the level surety bonding companies require of contractors, and what larger credit facilities and outside investors typically ask for.
Governed by SSARS AR-C 90. Independence required.
Who Asks for Which
- Surety / bonding company → reviewed financial statements, usually with a working capital schedule
- Community bank or SBA lender → compiled statements, sometimes reviewed above a loan threshold
- Commercial landlord or franchisor → compiled statements
- Nonprofit board or grantor → compiled or reviewed, depending on grant size and state thresholds
- Buyer in a business sale → reviewed statements, typically three years
- Management and internal use only → preparation engagement
What You Get Either Way
- Statements in the framework your reader actually requires — GAAP, tax basis, or cash basis
- Footnote disclosures drafted and explained, not boilerplate
- A named CPA who will take the lender's or surety's phone call
- Coordination with your tax return so the two tell the same story
- Secure document exchange through the DynaTax AI portal — no shipping binders
- A written engagement letter with scope and fee agreed before work starts
The CIA Side of the Practice
A CPA tells you whether the numbers are reported correctly. A Certified Internal Auditor tells you whether the process that produced them can be trusted — and whether it can be stolen from. Holding both is uncommon in a firm this size, and it is the reason a growing share of our work is control and compliance work rather than tax.
Outsourced Internal Audit
A standing internal audit function for organizations too small to staff one: an annual risk assessment, a rolling audit plan your board approves, fieldwork, and written reports with tracked remediation. Common for nonprofits, credit unions, districts, and family-held companies with outside investors.
Internal Control Design & Assessment
Most small-business control failures trace back to one person who can initiate a payment, approve it, and reconcile the account. We map who can do what, document the gaps, and design controls that work with the headcount you actually have — not the one a textbook assumes.
Fraud Risk Assessment
A structured look at where your organization is exposed — cash receipts, payroll, vendor setup, expense reimbursement, credit cards — with practical countermeasures ranked by cost and effort. Boards of nonprofits and churches increasingly expect this in writing.
Contract & Royalty Compliance Review
Permian-specific work: joint interest billing review, royalty and division order verification, and vendor contract compliance testing. If you own a non-operated working interest or a mineral position, someone else is calculating what you're owed — this checks their math.
Grant & Funding Compliance Readiness
For nonprofits approaching the federal expenditure threshold that triggers a Single Audit: allowable cost testing, time-and-effort documentation, subrecipient monitoring, and a clean-up pass before the auditors arrive — so their findings letter is short.
Process & Policy Documentation
Written accounting policies and procedures, a month-end close checklist, and an approval matrix — the documents lenders, grantors, and successor management always ask for and small organizations almost never have.
Where This Work Pays for Itself
We take assurance and internal audit engagements across Texas, but three groups get the most out of a firm that holds both credentials.
Nonprofits & Churches
One relationship covering Form 990, compiled or reviewed statements for the board and grantors, and the internal control and fraud work that volunteer boards are increasingly held responsible for. West Texas organizations rarely find all three in one place.
Construction Contractors
Reviewed financial statements with work-in-progress and working capital schedules that surety underwriters read closely — plus percentage-of-completion revenue recognition handled correctly, because bonding capacity depends on it.
Energy & Oilfield Services
Compiled statements for equipment financing, joint interest and royalty compliance review, and control work for service companies scaling headcount faster than their accounting department. Midland and Odessa are on our doorstep.
How an Engagement Runs
Assurance work is more structured than a tax return, and the timeline matters when a loan or a bond is waiting. Here's the shape of it.
Scoping call
We ask who is going to read the statements and what exactly they asked for — that answer determines the service level and the fee.
Engagement letter
Scope, framework, deliverable, timeline, and fixed fee in writing before any work begins. No surprises on the invoice.
Document request
A single itemized request list through the secure portal — trial balance, bank statements, loan agreements, and supporting schedules.
Fieldwork
Analytical procedures and inquiry for a review; formatting and framework compliance for a compilation; testing and walkthroughs for internal audit work.
Report & debrief
Final statements with the CPA report, a walkthrough call, and — where we found control weaknesses — a written management letter you can act on.
Straight Answers Before You Call
Do you perform audits of financial statements?
No — and we will tell you that on the first call rather than the third. Our firm is enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program at the engagement review level, which covers review, compilation, and preparation engagements. A financial statement audit is a different service with a different peer review requirement. If your lender, grantor, or bond covenant genuinely requires an audit, we will say so plainly and refer you to a firm that performs them. Quite often the requirement turns out to be for a review, and we can handle it.
What is a peer review, and why should I care?
Peer review is a mandatory independent examination of a CPA firm's accounting work by another CPA firm, administered in Texas by the Texas Society of CPAs under AICPA standards. A firm receives a rating of pass, pass with deficiencies, or fail. Ours is a pass, the highest rating available. Practically, it means an independent reviewer examined our engagement work and found it performed and reported in conformity with professional standards. Many lenders and grantors now ask to see the report before accepting a CPA's work. Ours is here.
You do my bookkeeping. Can you also review my financial statements?
Not without a careful look at independence first. Independence is required for a review engagement, and performing bookkeeping for the same client creates a threat that has to be evaluated and safeguarded — sometimes it can be, sometimes it cannot. A compilation is more flexible: we can perform one without independence as long as we disclose that fact in the report. We will work this out with you before the engagement letter, not after the report is issued.
How is internal audit different from what my CPA already does?
Tax work looks backward at what happened and reports it to a taxing authority. Internal audit looks at whether your processes and controls are designed and operating well enough that what happens next is what you intended — and reports to your board or owner, not to a regulator. The two answer different questions, and organizations that only ever buy the first one tend to discover the gap the expensive way.
Can assurance work really be done virtually?
Yes, and it has been standard practice since 2020. Documents move through the encrypted DynaTax AI portal, walkthroughs and inquiry happen over video, and where an engagement genuinely requires observing something physically on site we arrange it. You get faster turnaround than a firm that still schedules fieldwork weeks out around travel.
What does it cost?
Fees depend on the service level, the condition of your books, and the framework required, so we quote a fixed fee after the scoping call rather than posting a range that will not fit your situation. As general guidance: preparation engagements are the least expensive, compilations sit in the middle, and reviews cost meaningfully more because of the procedures required. Clean books lower every one of those numbers.
Scope note. Chau Tran CPA PLLC performs preparation, compilation, and review engagements under the AICPA's Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS), and consulting engagements including internal audit, internal control assessment, and compliance review. We do not perform financial statement audits or Single Audits. Internal audit and consulting engagements are non-attest services; where we also provide attest services to the same client, independence is evaluated in accordance with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct before the engagement is accepted.
Someone Asked You for Financial Statements?
Send us what they asked for — the email, the loan checklist, the bond application. We'll tell you which service level it actually calls for and what it will cost, usually on the first call.