I borrowed some advice from this forum last year about a year-end audit. Thanks! From that help, we created a checklist and worksheet to guide our auditor. I'll print the worksheet here, and email you the checklist since it's a bit long.
Fiscal Year Ending: ____July 31, 2003________
Beginning Cash Balance (As of 8-1-02) (A) ________
Receipts during Period (
________
Total Cash Available (C)= A+B= ________
Disbursements During Period (D) ________
Ending Cash Balance (E) = C-D = ________
Bank Statement Balance (F) ________
Checks Outstanding (List Below) (G) ________
Reconciled Cash Balance (H)=F-G = ________
Checkbook Balance as of 7-31-03 (I) = ________
Any Discrepency? (H) vs. (I) ________
We hand over our files of reimbursement request, check requests, deposit notices, and cancelled checks for the auditor to review for procedural compliance (ex: do all the requests for $ have two signatures). The auditor also needs our most recent bank statement and check register for the year.
We use the audit to verify our "in's" and "outs", but not to assess how well we kept to our budget. That's the board's job.
We've used this format for two years and it seems to work fine. Of course, good record-keeping throughout the year will make the year-end review infinitely easier. Good luck!