On Feb 12, 2008 4:51 AM, Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Precisely. The FS on the audit document are presented with an accounting perspective. Not for the general audience.
Financial statements are not written just for accountants, but anyone with "a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and who are willing to study the information diligently".
The goal of an audit is not to provide breakdowns of each line.
My concern was over the financial statements, not the audit, but in any case breakdowns of each line is not required.
I know, and I regret that you were not provided with detailed breakdown or a budget during year 2006-2007.
It's not something you have to regret. You're still on the board. Write a resolution that the WMF will provide us with detailed breakdown and a budget for year 2006-2007. Maybe it won't pass, but at least you tried.
The fact that I regret the public was not provided this breakdown is totally irrelevant to the audit itself and does not preclude I mistakenly approved the audit.
Again, I'm not talking about the audit, I'm talking about the financial statements. Try not to mix the two up. In your resolution, you approve the financial statements, not the audit.
That said, not providing a breakdown is one thing. Combining things in misleading ways is another. These are your financial statements. You should be happy with them before you approve them. If you want to break something out, break it out, or at least put in a clarifying note. 7 categories of expenses is not very many. 8 would have been fine. The note about amounts from 2006 being reclassified to conform with the 2007 presentation didn't have to be so cryptic, it could have explained what was reclassified. "Contributions that are restricted by the donor" don't have to be "reported as an increase in unrestricted net assets if the restriction expires in the reporting period in which the contributions are received."
Does that clarify things ?
A little. But I still have some questions which I asked at the bottom of my last email. And I hope you pursue that resolution to provide us with more detailed statements, if not now then in the future. Why not provide us with unaudited statements on a quarterly basis to supplement the annual audited statement?