Education

The Right Firm

• Brown Edwards is committed to higher education. Serving the private higher education industry is a core focus in our firm. For you, this means that we understand your issues, your challenges, and your unique accounting and reporting requirements.
• We offer you the comprehensive size and scope of a large national firm with a strong emphasis on personal and quality service; plus, you’ll be dealing with seasoned, high level CPAs on your important issues and your audit
• Higher education industry expertise –  serving a number of small, private higher education clients within reasonable geographic proximity to you allows Brown Edwards to be a leader in this industry
• Quality audits and advice on making your financial statements more transparent and that “tell your story”.
• Unrivaled benchmarking information included in your audit fee; plus, we don’t just calculate the trends, we provide meaningful counsel regarding how they impact you
• An annual State of Private Higher Education article to keep you abreast of what’s happening in the industry; Monthly electronic tax alerts and accounting newsletters specifically geared to higher education
• A top-notch higher education seminar and other training sessions

The Right People

Brown Edwards has a pool of higher education specialists who are highly experienced and sensitive to your needs and concerns. Our team members are noted by our clients for their accessibility and hands-on style, as well as the depth of knowledge and capabilities. Ultimately, in professional relationships, people make the difference.

In addition, you know you can expect the following from your Brown Edwards’ team:

• Accessible and responsive – 24/7 availability with experienced HE personnel
• Significant senior level involvement and availability, which is not always a given with many of our competitors
• Trained to take a practical approach with practical solutions, and to be courteous and professional

Our Value-Added Audit Approach

Our audit process addresses today’s heightened risks and makes suggestions to alleviate them, which helps to ensure your integrity and reputation. In addition to giving you the compliance value you deserve through an efficient and effective audit, we will deliver the business value you should expect. This philosophy is the cornerstone of the Brown Edwards’ audit approach. You can expect all of the following as a part of your audit by Brown Edwards:

• • Our audits are efficient, thorough, and effective – the epitome of quality
  • Appropriately focused using an “8-hour” risk assessment methodology directed at key controls – budgeting process, restricted contributions, endowment monitoring and oversight, and the financial reporting process
  • Timely communications – formal pre-audit, during the audit process, and formal 
post-audit
  • State-of-the art approach – full use of the latest technology; paperless
  • Assessment of your information technology risks and controls by an experienced CISA (Certified Information System Auditor)
  • We give you the compliance value but also leverage our in-depth knowledge of the College to deliver business value
    • Benchmarking comparisons and related high-level counsel, operational advice, and traditional required communications on internal controls
    • Communicated to you in a clear and concise presentation along with other deliverables
  • Our approach addresses today’s heightened awareness of corruption and fraud by identifying risks and making suggestions to alleviate them

Reasonable and Competitive Fees

Concern over the level of fees for accounting and consulting services is a real issue for every business, particularly with so much pressure on increasing costs. We are highly sensitive to this concern and are committed to ensuring all appropriate actions are taken to maintain fees at reasonable levels. However, we also recognize that fees cannot be compromised for reduced quality. Our goal is always to be fair to the College and to Brown Edwards – a “win/win situation.”