Just like to see whether any one else has had the following scenario and what they did, if anything.
I'm preparing accounts for a client, second year of acting for them, and have requested an update record of assets held as the previous accountant never supplied a register nor, as it seems, ever prepared one. Having received my clients list of current assets held it bears no resemblance to the assets on the balance sheet! Turns out for seven years no checks were made for any additions/disposals thus the balance sheet is inaccurate. Anyone else had this problem? Any thoughts be appreciated
Replies (9)
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Which way
Is the TB balance too high, or too low? If too high, maybe you could just treat this as a fixed asset verification exercise and treat the non-verifiable amount as a disposal.
Asset verification
I'm not an accountant so don't know your rules but if you sign off a set of accounts with the fixed asset value displayed do you not have a professional (and legal?) requirement to verify it in the same way you do for all the other figures, or is the client's word just accepted. As my company specialises in physical asset audit data gathering and software tracking tools, I am surprisied that so few accountants offer this service add on, especially as it realises the extra benefits of sums insured accuracy, claims validation, future purchase budgeting, and with security tags, improved theft deterrence and proof of ownership.
Yes we can do it for you, at the rate of 500 assets tagged and logged per auditor per day, all collected on hand helds and published to websites if needed. The client can down load from there and keep the register up to date with new purchases and disposals, thus keeping accountants happy with true figures on the balance sheet! -- Stephen L
Rushed First Year (2)
I know, we're as bad as the next in submitting figures close to the filing date. Meanwhile we do have the water trough solution- a web platform where all your clients' assets can be lodged and edited by them or you for acquisitions and disposals, then all you need do is download the inventory when you need it to XL (or pdf for saving) and integrate with your accounting system, doing all that depreciation stuff etc. If we can do it for all the schools in one London borough why not for an accountancy practice. Bring on the horses! -- Stephen L
So,
unless I am missing the point, the assets have been misanalysed at some point between fixtures and equipment but when aggregated they are about £2,500 out? OK, not ideal but not really worth losing sleep about and certainly not worthy of your description of 'bears no resemblence'. Now you say that for 7 years no checks were made for additions or disposals. So, there have been no additions for 7 years or simply they were not recorded on an asset ledger? Two different problems. Were there no CA's claims / are there no accounting systems to verify this against?
As for throwing your hands up in the air about 'how many accountants etc etc?' .... well in 10 years I've been passed as asset register .... twice by outgoing accountants! To a certain extent the fixed asset figure in a private limited company balance sheets is only of interest to accountants (well some at least) as the accounts are predominantly prepared for tax purposes and for sure HMRC are only interested in the CA claim!
Fixed Assets Register
The idea is that depreciation expense is calculated and stored in a depreciation transaction table. If the organisation desires, these transactions will then be able to be posted to the G/L into the accounts specified by the Asset Type.