Accounting and Auditing Accounting and auditing constitute the core of our operations. As Certified Public Accountants, we are responsible for the objective examination of financial statements to determine compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. Our objective is to offer the highest quality accounting and auditing services at the lowest possible cost to our clients. To achieve this objective, we maintain a quality control program to be sure each member of our staff is exposed to the most current and relevant information available in the accounting profession. Our staff gives support to clients in the preparation of budgets and forecasts, detailed analyses of segments of operations, the interpretation of variance from planned performance, and recommendations for corrective action. We provide vital assistance in reviewing information for disclosure to the public and we have participated in SEC filings. We represent clients in merger and acquisition negotiations; assist in credit applications; attend audit committee, directors and stockholders meetings; and participate with many company officials in industrial and professional seminars. We assist our clients in relations with banks and other financial institutions, both private and governmental. We have developed progressive techniques and methods which substantially increase our accounting services and auditing capabilities. For example, we utilize a generalized audit software system which enables us to extract data from, and work with, information on client computer files in almost any manner without assistance from programmers or other computer technicians.   Tax Services We offer clients a full range of tax compliance and consulting services. In the area of corporate tax planning, our experience includes mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, buy/sell and buy/lease agreements. We advise on the tax effects of transfers of ownership among family members in a business; we provide income and estate counseling; we design compensation, fringe benefit, and retirement plans for a company; and we plan for a change in a corporation's accounting methods. To non-profit organizations, we offer suggestions in minimizing unrelated business income and in allocating general overhead expenses to those activities. For our personal clients, we assist in tax planning, retirement planning and estate planning. We provide payroll tax services to all clients.   Litigation and Forensic Accounting Services Richard E. Smith served six years as an appointed member of the California State Board of Accountancy Technical Review Panel and Major Case Project. This experience provided the impetus to begin a specialty in litigation support and forensic accounting services. Specific experiences include limited partnership defalcations, representing both plaintiff and defendant accountants in malpractice actions, employee embezzlement, investigations of inventory shrinkage, cemetery and funeral home cash shortages, overvaluations of limited partner investments, business valuations, and marital dissolutions. Mr. Smith is a Certified Fraud Examiner and has been qualified as an expert witness, providing testimony in over thirty Superior Court proceedings throughout California.