Chartered Professional Accountants · Laval

Financial statements your board, your bank and your funders can rely on.

A CPA firm based in Laval, focused on audit, review and compilation engagements for Quebec non-profit organizations and small and mid-sized businesses. We produce statements that meet the standards, on the dates we agreed to, and we explain what they mean.

Request a quote Which engagement do I need?

The firm at a glance

OfficeLaval, Saint-Martin West. Clients served across Quebec.
LanguagesService in English and French.
EngagementsAudit, review, compilation and special engagements.
RegulatorMember of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec.
HoursMonday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Telephone579 934-0777

Audit, review, compilation, special engagements

Four types of engagement. Only one is right for you.

What changes between them is not how seriously the work is done. It is the level of assurance the report gives the reader, and the cost that comes with it. Here is how to choose.

Audit

Highest assurance

Reasonable assurance

The highest level. We corroborate balances with evidence obtained from outside your organization: bank confirmations, lawyers' confirmations, tests of controls, review of grant agreements and contracts.

When: required by your bylaws, a funding agreement, a public funder or a lender.

Review engagement

Limited assurance

Analytical procedures and inquiries. The report concludes that nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe the statements are materially misstated.

When: your bank or a third party wants credibility without requiring a full audit.

Compilation

No assurance

A professional presentation of the financial information you provide, with a note describing the basis of accounting used. No verification is performed on that information.

When: internal use, shareholders, or filing a corporate tax return.

Special engagements

Tailored

As agreed

Agreed-upon procedures on the costs of a funded project, attestations required by a regulator, statements prepared to a funder's own template.

When: a third party imposes its own form of report and the standard format will not do.

Not sure whether you are required to

Six situations where an audit or review becomes mandatory

In most cases you do not get to choose the level of engagement. Someone else wrote a document that decides it for you. Send us that document and we will tell you which one applies.

Your bylaws require it

Many non-profits have an article requiring the appointment of an auditor at the annual general meeting, and the board has often forgotten it is there.

A funding agreement calls for it

Ministries, municipalities and foundations frequently require an audit or agreed-upon procedures on the eligible costs of a specific project.

Your lender wrote it into the credit agreement

Bank covenants commonly require audited or reviewed statements within 90 to 120 days of year end.

You are renewing a regulated licence

Certain licences, including the travel agent permit issued by Quebec's consumer protection office, require statements and attestations prepared by a CPA.

You administer public funds

Subsidized childcare, government-funded programs, cooperatives: each accountability regime carries its own assurance requirements.

You are selling, buying or reorganizing

A buyer, a new shareholder or a tax reorganization all call for statements whose basis is documented and defensible.

Services

Assurance, tax and ongoing support

One point of contact for the whole file: the assurance engagement, the returns that follow from it, and the questions that come up during the year.

Assurance

The core of the practice. Engagements performed under Canadian standards, with statements presented under the framework that applies to you.

Audit engagementAudited statements, with a management letter to the board.
Review engagementLimited assurance, without the work of a full audit.
Compilation engagementCompiled statements, with no assurance.
Special engagementsAgreed-upon procedures, regulated attestations and reports prepared to a funder's template.

Tax

Compliance first, planning second. We prepare the returns and we stand with you when the tax authorities ask questions.

Corporate taxFederal T2 and Quebec CO-17, with the applicable schedules and credits.
Personal taxShareholders, professionals, self-employed individuals and estates.
Non-profit and charity returnsT1044, T3010 and TP-985.22 for registered charities and foundations.
Rollovers and reorganizationsTax-deferred transfers of property, estate freezes and share capital reorganizations.
Audits and objectionsRepresentation before the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec.

Support

The work between two year ends, the part that prevents unpleasant surprises when the engagement starts.

Board supportPresenting the statements at the annual general meeting and answering directors' questions.
Company structureIncorporation, shareholder agreements and transferring the business to the next generation.
Internal controlsRecommendations on segregation of duties and safeguarding of assets, scaled to your organization.
Year-end preparationWe tell your bookkeeper what needs to be settled before the engagement begins.

Who we serve

Two reporting frameworks. Almost every organization falls under one of them.

We are not an industry firm. What shapes the way we work is not your line of business, it is the accounting framework that applies to you and the accountability requirement you are under.

Your organization does not distribute profits

Then it falls under the framework for not-for-profit organizations. That covers non-profits, registered charities, foundations, associations and member groups, clubs, cooperatives, condominium syndicates, and any organization funded with public money.

Your business has an owner or shareholders

Then it falls under the framework for private enterprises. That covers a dental practice, a medical clinic, a pharmacy, a restaurant, a construction contractor, a retail store, a property management company, a professional corporation, and service, transport or manufacturing businesses alike.

This list is not exhaustive and never will be. If you do not see yourself in it, call us: the framework that applies to you and the level of engagement required take a few minutes to establish on the phone, at no charge.

Business owner standing in front of his shop — **Owner-managed business**An owner who wants to know where the business is going, not only what happened.

A group of people working around a table — **Non-profits and foundations**A board and funders who expect a clear accounting.

Operator at an industrial machine — **Manufacturing and trades**Inventory, contracts and bonding requirements that have to be documented.

You speak to the person who signs your report.

No team that changes every year, no file passed from hand to hand. A small firm, held to the standards of a large one.

You know when your team will be called on, and for what.

An assurance engagement follows a fixed sequence. We hand it to you with the engagement letter.

Our approach

How an engagement runs

An assurance engagement follows a fixed sequence. Knowing it tells you when your team will be called on, and for what.

Step 1

Acceptance and engagement letter

We confirm the level of engagement required, the deadlines and the fees. Nothing begins before the engagement letter is signed.

Step 2

Document request

You receive one precise list of what we need. No requests trickling in over six weeks.

Step 3

Fieldwork

We perform the procedures the standard requires. Questions reach you as they arise, never all at the end.

Step 4

Delivery and presentation

Signed statements, the report, tax returns, and where needed a presentation to the board or the annual general meeting.

The firm

Billy Mokas CPA Société professionnelle

We are a small firm based in Laval. You speak to the person who signs your report, not to a different intermediary every year.

The practice is focused on assurance: audit, review and compilation engagements, with the tax work that comes with them. That is a deliberate choice. We know the frameworks that apply to non-profit organizations and private companies, and we apply them without rediscovering them each spring.

The firm is subject to professional inspection by the Ordre des CPA du Québec and maintains a system of quality management under the Canadian Standards on Quality Management, the Canadian standards. In practice, that means every file is documented and reviewed under an established process.

We serve our clients in English and French, across Quebec.

"For many boards, an assurance engagement is an obligation they endure once a year. My job is to make sure you come out of it with something useful: statements you understand, and a clear idea of what to fix before next year."

Billy MokasCPA auditor, founder of the firm

What sets us apart

We take work in the regionsFrom the Outaouais to Saguenay, we accept engagements many firms turn down because the client is far away.
We know the fundersMinisterial accountability reporting, international cooperation projects, municipal programs, subsidized childcare.
We take regulated engagementsAttestations for regulated licences and agreed-upon procedures on public funds.
The CPA who signs does the workNo team that changes from one year to the next.

Careers

Looking to do real assurance work?

In a large firm, a junior CPA often reruns the same working paper across thirty files. Here it is the whole engagement, from the first client call to the board presentation. And the assurance hours the Ordre requires actually accumulate, because assurance is the core of the practice.

See the roles

Recurring roles

CPA practical experienceAssurance hours available year-round, on complete engagements.
Engagement managerCPA in progress or completed, with firm experience.
DirectorA client portfolio, file review and the team's technical reference.

Contact

Let's talk about your year end

Tell us your year-end date and what you are being asked to produce. We will come back with the level of engagement required and a fee estimate.

Request a quote 579 934-0777