Compliance
Advisory & Joint Venture Agreements
Our clients have engaged us to perform hundreds of compliance audits of advisory and joint venture partners. The procedures include a review of the respective agreement and testing of all applicable compliance areas. Reports to our clients have included recommendations regarding the auditee’s internal control processes and procedures, reporting practices, due diligence and scorecard processes, competitive bidding, compliance with anti-discrimination requirements, insurance requirements, as well as monetary recoveries of G&A fees, acquisition fees, disposition fees, and other monitoring fees. Our reports have been used by our clients to evaluate and score their advisors and joint venture partners.
Property Management Audits
Our clients have engaged us to perform hundreds of compliance audits of property management companies engaged to manage specific assets. The procedures include a review of the respective agreement and testing of all applicable compliance areas. Reports to our clients have included recommendations regarding the auditee’s internal control processes and procedures, lease files, reporting practices, operational issues, competitive bidding, compliance with anti-discrimination requirements, insurance requirements, as well as monetary recoveries of management and other fees. Our reports have been used by our clients to evaluate and score their property managers.
Reporting Entity Audits
Our clients have engaged us to perform over 120 compliance audits of reporting entities such as elementary schools, high schools, charter schools and universities. The procedures include a review of auditee records, bargaining agreements, pay schedules, and testing for compliance with retirement law and district policy. Reports to our clients have included recommendations regarding the auditee’s internal control processes and procedures, reporting practices, record retention, coding of employee duties, spiking, retirement allowances, as well as underpayments to the client. Our reports have been used by our clients to correct current reporting from the auditee, summarize findings and extrapolate cost savings, adjust incorrect allowances, and collect underpayments from the auditee.
Incentive Fee Distribution Engagements
Our clients have engaged us to perform a multitude of distribution audits of joint venture cash flows. The procedures include testing of cash flows in accordance with the terms of the respective agreements and waterfall calculations. Our reports have been used by our clients to close out their incentive distribution payments with their partners.
Other Compliance Audits
Our clients have engaged us to perform other compliance audits including profit participation agreements, percentage rent agreements and ground leases.
Construction
General Contractors We have successfully completed a multitude of full-scope construction audits of General Contractors for our clients. Typical engagements include agreed-upon procedures applied to GMAX, Cost Plus, Unit Price or Lump Sum construction contracts. Project types include hotel casino, retail, office, multifamily, residential, industrial and hospitality. Some of the nation’s largest public pension funds and private land owner/developers have trusted us for years to provide professional construction audit services. Our engagements include a review of the construction contracts and applicable documents to plan testing. Our procedures typically include tests of construction draws, subcontracts, lien releases, owner and subcontractor change orders, equipment billing rates, payroll and burden costs, insurance and OCIP programs, time & materials billings and other tests of costs. Final audit reports have been used by our clients to negotiate multi-million dollar settlements at project completion.
Architects & Engineers The engagements include a review of the agreements and applicable documents to plan testing. Our procedures typically include tests of labor distribution reports, agreed-upon billing rates, time cards and time coding in accordance with proper job code, expense reimbursements, etc. Our procedures for these engagements evaluated billings by the main architects and sub-consultants. Several of these engagements resulted in savings in excess of $1 million for our clients.
Builder Audits We have successfully completed hundreds of residential builder profit participation audits for some of the largest land owner/developers in southern California. Engagements are completed on a project-by-project basis on some of the largest master planned residential developments in southern California. The engagements include a review of the construction contracts and applicable documents to plan testing. Our procedures typically include tests of sales files, construction contracts, invoices, payroll, allowances, imputed interest, insurance, and other cost areas. These highly tailored procedures have resulted in millions of dollars of savings for our clients.
Payroll & Overhead Cost Pools These engagements include a review of the construction contracts and applicable documents to plan testing. Our procedures typically include tests of payroll and overhead billings, payroll registers, union wage agreements, auto allowances, taxes, health insurance, profit sharing, bonuses, etc. These highly tailored procedures have resulted in hundreds of thousand dollars of savings for our clients and were used by one client to help close out over 35 subcontractors on a multi-billion hotel casino development.
Other Specialty Procedures Our clients have engaged us from time to time to perform other highly tailored procedures regarding specific issues that arise. We were engaged to perform a project-wide equipment audit of a hotel casino development in Mississippi. Procedures included tests of equipment billings, usage logs and billing rates in accordance with Blue Book approved rates. The audit report was used to negotiate settlements with the contractor and subcontractors engaged on the project. We have been engaged by multiple clients to perform specific procedures to recalculate fees in accordance with the respective agreements. The audit reports have been used to negotiate settlements and renegotiate fee calculations.
Financial Statements
Financial Statement Audits
Our clients have engaged us to perform annual financial statement audits for over 25 of their real estate holding companies. Our audits have included field visits to the property sites and coordination between the joint venture partners and property managers. Our knowledge of the real estate industry enables us to provide our clients and their joint venture partners with quality audits performed by experienced auditors. Our audit experience has included real estate asset types such as: office, retail, industrial, apartments, hotels and development projects. Our approach to exceptional service is accomplished with client communication, experienced audit teams, and attention to our clients’ needs. We also adhere to strict quality control measures and professional standards of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.