By Darren Woods, Controller
During the second quarter of 2022, Ruppert Landscape wrapped up its financial statement audit for the 2021 calendar year. This is an important annual accomplishment for the company, and accounting in particular, and concludes an effort several months in the making.
In an audit, a company hires an independent auditing firm to examine the information reported in the company’s financial statements and to express an unbiased opinion as to whether those financials are free of material misstatement. The CPA’s who perform this service form their opinion by reviewing internal controls, examining the source documents for hundreds of transactions, verifying account balances directly with third parties, and various other procedures. There is no requirement for Ruppert Landscape to have a financial statement audit, but we feel that the users of our financial statements deserve the assurance and confidence that comes with an auditor’s report. The stakeholders who rely on the accuracy of our financial reporting include our shareholders, board of directors, lenders, customers, and vendors.
Planning for our annual audit started back in September, with testing procedures kicking off in late October. During the audit, the company provided approximately 3,900 documents to the auditors, including payroll records, customer contracts and invoices, vendor contracts and invoices, bank records, and much more. When the work was completed and the auditors provided their final report, they affirmed that our financials fairly represent the financial position of the company and its performance during the year. This “clean” report is what we expected and is the best possible outcome for a financial statement audit.
The audit is coordinated by our accounting team, but could not be accomplished without the help and involvement of personnel from both divisions. We appreciate the effort of every person who contributed to our successful audit, and will be starting this annual process again soon.