CSB - A Professional Services Firm

Whether you are a member of the investing public or a business, you've placed your trust in us.  You can be assured that CSB's professionals apply the highest standards of professional integrity, objectivity, independence and technical excellence to all our activities.  Through careful deliberations and the involvement of people with the appropriate technical knowledge, skills, and experience - uniquely supported by Our Technology Driven Audit Approach - we get to the right answer:  The answer that will stand up to scrutiny.

Our professionals have extensive experience in a variety of industries.  This experience includes acting or having acted as independent auditors, accountants and consultants to clients ranging from fast growing small business to large multi-national companies, spanning various industries and sectors such as, Banking and Finance, International Funding Agencies, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Governmental and non-Governmental institutions.

CSB demands professional qualifications from our professionals, whether CPA, ACCA, CISA or other internationally accepted designations.  Practice quality is maintained and enhanced through staff training, both locally and overseas, and through professional practice reviews.  With CSB you can expect the best and trust that it's right.

Audit Services:

Your financial reporting is critical to ensuring transparent communication with stakeholders and assuring your long-term success.  With an in-depth understanding of evolving accounting practices and regulatory environments, our professionals can help you maintain a strong financial reporting system supported by effective disclosure and internal controls.

Our assurance professionals gather information during an audit to understand fully a client's business, internal controls and risk spectrum.  Before making audit decisions, we conduct objective diagnostic tests and analytical reviews.  Our methods help enable our clients to meet the growing demand for enhanced disclosure and accountability.  We work closely with, yet independently from our clients and encourage open communication.  Our audit goes beyond testing transactions and balances to providing insights that help you better understand your business.

Our services are performed in accordance with International Standards on Auditing or those generally accepted in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom.  Our experience extends to multi-national engagements and collaboration with other professional services firms.

Key services:

• Audits of financial statements,

• Consulting on complex financial instruments and special purpose vehicles,

• Agreed upon audit procedures,

• Special purpose reviews and interim financial statements,

• Performance record examinations

Risk Advisory Services:

Managing risk today is not what it used to be.  Technological innovation, globalization, complex regulation and increased accountability at the senior management and board levels have all combined to significantly change the landscape of risk management today.  Managing risk has become increasingly complex due to the new "Network Economy" and the emerging risks of e-business from online security to customer privacy.  The complexity also comes from the:

• Pervasive nature of information technologies,

• Increasing need for knowledge of local laws and customs,

• Evolution of trading markets,

• Higher accountability standards for boards of directors and senior executives,

• Unprecedented complexity of the regulatory environment, pressing firms for better risk reporting and more integrated and comprehensive risk management, and,

• Shortage of skilled personnel.

To help the market cope, new positions, tools, rules and even language have been created.  Most companies are creating new positions, such as internal auditor,  risk officer, and  security officer.  There also has been a proliferation of risk management software and other technology solutions as well as new regulation mandating certain risk management practices related to security, privacy, operations, compliance and economic exposures.  Indeed, the term "enterprise risk management" (ERM) has become part of the general business vocabulary.

CSB can provide clients with solutions from a full range of consulting and assurance services, from assessment to transformation, involving process redesign and technology implementation.  Our professionals are industry-based risk control specialists, who can help you  to not only assess risk but also transform your organization's risk management systems to make them more effective and help you avoid surprises.

Key Service Areas:

• Internal audit has changed dramatically in recent years, evolving from a traditional auditing role, with a charter of protecting enterprise value, to that of an internal consultant, with increasing organizationwide pressure to enhance shareholder value.

• Our internal audit professionals take a risk-based approach to internal audit to help clients improve performance and operating efficiency. We work closely and collaboratively with our clients, providing the full range of services-such as:

• helping to design a strategic plan for internal audit,

• reengineering existing departments,

• providing specialized resources, or,

• completely outsourcing the entire internal audit function.

Our professionals have the knowledge, technology, and experience across a broad spectrum of industries, along with a distinctive approach, that make us uniquely qualified to help.  We work closely with our clients to build world-class internal audit processes that become critical in helping management assess the current situation and strengthen the entire organization.

Regulatory Consulting:

Our team of regulatory consulting professionals delivers a broad range of consulting and advisory services to help clients in a variety of industries actively manage evolving operational and regulatory risk as well as adapt to more complicated regulatory and control environments.  We help identify, assess, and upgrade existing financial, operational, and compliance controls and processes, and resolve problems resulting from inadequate controls or management of regulatory risk.

Former regulators and industry professionals, we bring a unique cross-disciplinary perspective to clients who are expected to comply with multi-industry regulatory requirements, emerging government and regulatory enforcement trends, and evolving industry best practices.

Security & Privacy Services:

Helping our clients manage information securely:

• Our Professionals assist our clients in addressing and managing risks in an increasingly complex network environment, including risk of security breach, and regulatory environment issues. Our services include identity management, application integrity and infrastructure security.

• Identity management services provide clients with solutions to improve security and reduce cost through an integrated identity management approach, including secure access authentication, directory services and single sign-on and resource provisioning software.  This area includes ID Accelerator, a solution we offer with IBM Tivoli Identity Manager software that helps large and mid-sized businesses automate the task of managing user identities and enforcing security policies.

• Application integrity provides end-to-end integrity of business transactions and enables the effective use of new technologies.  It includes security and controls in ERP and e-Business application implementations, including SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel and Ariba.

• Infrastructure security addresses confidentiality, availability, and reliability of the infrastructure and provides the foundation for many risk-mitigating activities.  We help our clients with risk assessments, development and enforcement of security policies, performance of attack and penetration testing, and design and implementation of infrastructure security solutions.

Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability:

•  In recent years, the definition of business success has expanded from how much money an enterprise makes to how it makes its money.  Companies today face a wide range of expectations from a variety of stakeholders.  These include employees, consumers, regulators and the public, all of which demand to be heard and/or involved in company activities and decisions.  Stakeholders expect businesses to not only generate revenue but have a positive effect on society and minimize whatever adverse effects may stem from their operations.  First and foremost, they want to be able to trust that what companies say about themselves and their operations is reliable.

• While great effort goes into ensuring compliance with rules, standards and codes of conduct, many companies increasingly see the benefits of also managing social, environmental and economic impacts in a structured manner.  This helps them to manage risk more efficiently, strengthen corporate reputation and brand, and build trust with stakeholders.  A company's ability to manage such impacts well today is indicative of its ability to thrive in the future.

Key Services:

• CSB helps clients to successfully manage corporate responsibility and sustainable development issues.  Our professionals have the experience and the subject matter knowledge in several industries to assist your company in embedding corporate responsibility into business activities wherever you operate.  We support your efforts to deliver long-term sustainable value to your company and your stakeholders.

CSB can support you in manifold ways.  Our professionals can help you to:

• Manage corporate responsibility,

• Report on corporate responsibility,

• Obtain assurance on corporate responsibility reporting,

• Utilize best practice people management,

• Assess business-related risks and opportunities, and help to develop sound and responsible corporate business strategies.

Our Audit Approach:

Understanding your business environment:

Following the recent corporate governance scandals that have shaken investor confidence, companies across North America have reached a critical point.  Heightened regulatory scrutiny is placing greater pressure on all levels of corporate management, while boards of directors and audit committees grapple with the expectation that they should assume more responsibility for overseeing the financial reporting process.  Geographically dispersed organizations face unique issues as well, as they strive to ensure quality and completeness in their financial reporting processes on a worldwide basis.

• The audit process:
  

• Helping you meet today's challenges.  Given these challenges, it's more important than ever for businesses to work with trusted advisors.  The professionals at CSB can help.  Our team approaches your audit with a solid knowledge of your company's business practices, operations, and industrial sector.  We also bring you an in-depth understanding of evolving accounting practices and changes in the regulatory environment.  As a result, we can provide you with a fully integrated audit plan that’s driven by a fine-tuned methodology, one which allows you to identify new and emerging risks, and assess the effectiveness of your internal controls.

• First-class audit processes.  Our business is unique.  Your audit should be too.  That's why our experts work with you to develop an audit approach tailored to your organization.  After achieving an understanding of your business, we pinpoint areas of potential risk, ensure the necessary internal controls are in place, and - when we detect weaknesses - recommend effective, practical solutions.  We also help you go beyond mandatory regulatory requirements to respond dynamically to the diverse needs of your crucial stakeholders, including management, the board of directors, creditors, and shareholders.  The outcome is enhanced credibility for your company in today's demanding new marketplace.

• A proven approach:

To help you meet the highest standards of financial reporting, CSB's professionals adopt a three-phased audit approach:

1. Your audit plan.  During this phase, our experts develop an understanding of your business operations so we can address any financial reporting risks.  Once we comprehend those factors that are unique to your business, we review your company's internal controls.  Then we design detailed procedures to ensure your financial information fairly presents the results of your company's operations, cash flows, and financial position.

 

2. Rigorous testing.  After developing our tailored audit procedures, we subject your financial data to a series of stringent tests.  When using a control reliance strategy, we first design and perform tests to make certain that each control activity identified provides a reasonable assurance of achieving its objective.  This allows us to ensure that your financial reporting systems generate reliable data, reducing the amount of necessary detailed transaction testing.  We review your accounting policies to ensure that they are in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).  Then we conduct substantive tests to confirm that your transactions are accounted for in accordance with your accounting policies; that all material assumptions used to determine your significant estimates are both data-supported and reasonable; and that your account balances and other financial measures are fairly presented in accordance with GAAP.  In this way, we help you produce financial reports that are clear, readable, and transparent.  That's CSB's commitment - to meet your necessary auditing requirements and exceed your expectations through our added-value services.

 

3. Business-focused recommendations.  As a final step in our auditing process, we assess the accounting principles and estimates used to prepare your financial statements.  Based on this thorough analysis, CSB is ideally positioned to offer you useful business advice and help you benchmark your practices and results with those of your competitors.  We also provide you with insights and solutions concerning potential internal control deficiencies.  The result?  Your company's management, board of directors, and audit committee are better able to execute their oversight duties.

• Providing the necessary expertise:

• Ultimately, we are about people and knowledge - and about how the two interact to deliver business ideas, advice, and solutions.  We bring in the industry experts required to properly comprehend the specifics of your business - including marketing, production, finance, operations, tax, and IT - so we can tailor our audit approach accordingly.  This understanding enables us to provide you with actionable recommendations to manage and mitigate risk, and ultimately issue an assurance opinion that addresses those issues specific to your company’s financial reporting.

• In addition to our team of assurance experts, we rely on advanced proprietary technology called AuditSystem/2 to manage multi-site audits and develop common documentation that promotes the effectiveness of our audit approach and procedures.  It lets our audit team particularize the audit approach to the unique characteristics of your company’s operations, controls and risks.  AuditSystem/2's embedded control databases assist our team in understanding and evaluating your company's business cycles, enabling us to rapidly identify potential issues and accurately benchmark your company against your competitors.

Summary: 

We have robust audit tools, resources and procedures to provide the means for our professionals to deliver high-quality audit services.  In delivering these services we adhere to the highest standards of independence, professional objectivity and technical excellence.

AuditSystem/2™:

As a professional services firm, we continually strive to exceed the expectations of our clients and our people.  One of our strategies is to use the most effective information-technology tools - a business imperative in today's global environment.  So we utilize AuditSystem/2™, the latest in a long line of innovative, groundbreaking technology tools developed for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

AuditSystem/2™ is quite simply the worlds most powerful and effective audit system, providing a vast array of capabilities that enhance quality and responsiveness.  It is effective for serving all audit clients - from large multi-national and national corporations to small local businesses, across all industries.

This comprehensive audit system supports all phases of the audit process - planning, executing, reporting - and contains tools for analyzing, documenting, managing, communicating, interrogating, extracting, reviewing, and presenting.  It offers an unparalleled degree of integration plus unprecedented depth and breadth of application coverage.