#audit
Audit
Independent audit and assurance engagements — SOC 2, financial statement audits, internal controls testing, evidence collection, and audit readiness for service organizations and growing businesses
How Far Back Can the IRS Audit Your Small Business? The 3-Year, 6-Year, and Unlimited Rules Every Owner Should Know
The IRS normally has three years from the filing date to assess additional tax under IRC 6501(a), six years if you omit more than 25% of gross income, and unlimited time if you never filed or filed fraudulently. Parallel clocks run alongside it - 10 years to collect, 3 years to claim a refund, 4 years for employment tax records, and property basis until disposition plus 3 - which is why most CPAs tell small businesses to default financial records to six years.
Related-Party Disclosures Under ASC 850: When Paying Your Spouse's LLC Needs a Footnote
ASC 850 requires four things in the footnote for every material related-party transaction — the nature of the relationship, a description, dollar amounts for each period presented, and any change in how terms were set — and it applies even when the price is fair. This guide identifies who counts as a related party for a small business (10%+ owners, officers, immediate family, and entities they control), shows a model two-paragraph footnote, and gives a 10-step year-end checklist plus a Beancount account structure that turns disclosure into a query.
USCIS Form I-9 Deadline July 31, 2026: What Every Employer Must Update Before the New Edition Takes Over
Employers using electronic Form I-9 systems must update to the 05/31/2027 expiration date by July 31, 2026. This guide covers which editions stay valid, what changed in the 01/20/25 revision, the three-years-after-hire-or-one-year-after-termination retention rule, and which paperwork errors ICE now treats as substantive rather than technical.
How Long Should You Keep Business Records? The IRS 3-4-6-7 Year Rules
The IRS has no single seven-year rule. Income tax records run 3 years, employment tax records 4, substantial income omissions 6, bad-debt and worthless-security losses 7, and unfiled or fraudulent returns never expire — while property records run until the limitations period closes on the year you sell. This guide maps each clock to the documents it governs and gives a retention schedule small business owners can follow.
Your Workers' Comp Premium Audit Is Coming: How to Pass Without a Surprise Bill
A workers' comp premium is payroll ÷ 100 × class rate × experience mod, so the year-end audit re-tests both variables against your actual records. This guide covers the three audit types and what triggers each, the documents auditors request, why overtime premium is only excludable when recorded separately by employee and week under NCCI Rule 2-B-2, the 2026 NCCI officer caps of $3,400 weekly maximum and $1,700 minimum, and why payments to a subcontractor without a current certificate of insurance get charged to you as payroll.
UK Companies House 2026 Filing Overhaul: Software-Only iXBRL Accounts and Mandatory Director ID Verification Explained
Companies House ECCTA reforms require verified director and PSC identities since November 2025, ACSP-gated filing from late 2026, and software-only iXBRL accounts with no abridged option — learn timelines, corporate-director limits, and the bookkeeping changes small companies must make now.
Workers' Comp Premium Audits: Which Payroll Records Prevent a Surprise Bill?
A workers' comp premium audit reconciles your estimated payroll against actual payroll, job classification codes, and subcontractor payments. Missing a subcontractor's certificate of insurance can add the entire contract amount to your auditable payroll — plus a 25–50% non-compliance surcharge. Here are the records to keep monthly, and the 30–60 day dispute window to know.
OMB's Uniform Guidance Overhaul: What the 2 CFR 200 Rewrite Means for Nonprofits on Federal Grants
OMB's proposed Uniform Grants Regulation would replace 2 CFR Part 200 by October 1, 2026 — making the rules binding regulation, eliminating most fixed-amount awards in favor of cost-reimbursement, and adding termination-for-convenience authority. Here's what nonprofit finance teams should do about the 30–60 day reimbursement lag, indirect cost documentation, and new allowability limits before the final rule lands.
SAS 150 Explained: Auditors Must Now Confirm Cash Held by Payment Processors, PEOs, and Escrow Agents
The AICPA's SAS 150, issued July 2026, requires auditors to independently confirm cash and cash equivalents held by third parties — payment processor balances, PEO trust accounts, and escrow arrangements — effective for audits of periods ending on or after December 15, 2028. Here is what the standard changes, why it exists, and how audited businesses should prepare.
PCAOB AS 1215: The New 14-Day Audit Documentation Deadline and What It Means for Small Firms
PCAOB AS 1215 cuts the audit documentation completion window from 45 days to 14 after the report release date. Large firms have complied since fiscal years beginning December 15, 2024; all other registered firms follow for fiscal years beginning December 15, 2025 — meaning most calendar-year 2026 audits are already covered. Here's who's affected, the mistakes firms keep making, and how small practices are adapting.
How a Trailer Manufacturer's Bankruptcy Shows What Happens When Nobody Is Watching the Books
A Georgia trailer manufacturer's 2026 Chapter 11 filing traces partly to alleged employee theft discovered in 2024. Businesses under 100 employees suffer a median fraud loss of $141,000 per ACFE data — here are the segregation-of-duties controls that catch theft early, and why an auditable ledger matters.
GAO's AI Report on the SBA: What Federal Contractors and SBIR Applicants Should Do Now
GAO report GAO-26-107828 found the SBA froze nearly all AI work in March 2025 and took six years to publish its legally required AI use-case inventory. Here's what AI-assisted market research, proposal screening, and fraud detection mean for federal contractors and SBIR/STTR awardees — and the records to keep now.