David Trimner has provided tax consulting services to nonprofit organizations for over 20 years.  While he is not an auditor, he has worked for several audit firms, including “Big 4,” “Second-Tier,” and regional firms.  He provides this inside look into how a nonprofit organization can write an effective request for proposal (RFP) and then successfully interview and select an audit firm. Executive Summary Professional Services Are Not a Commodity A commodity is a basic commercial product where the providers are interchangeable.  The quality is substantially uniform and will only vary slightly between vendors.  However, the quality and service provided by […]

Many nonprofits prefer that the audit firm also prepare the tax return.  Because the audit represents ten times the hours of the tax work (and ten times the fee), selections are often based on the audit personnel without much consideration of the tax department.  For this reason, many firms won’t even bring a member of the tax team to the interview.  If they do, it indicates that the tax person presents very well or will give them some advantage. Audit firms vary in how they handle tax returns for audit clients.  In smaller firms, the auditors themselves may prepare and […]