Jardim & Marotta

Challenge

Jardim & Marotta wanted an employee benefit plan (EBP) solution that combined expert guidance with an efficient engagement management workflow. 

Solution

Jardim & Marotta selected OnPoint EBP, a cloud-based intelligent engagement management solution featuring built-in methodology for efficient EBP audits.

Results

Thanks to OnPoint EBP’s efficiency, Jardim & Marotta has maintained the same number of EBP engagements it handles each year with fewer staff than in the past.

“OnPoint’s appeal is its question-driven format. It’s great for our younger staff because the questions ensure audit standards are followed. It’s more intuitive than referring to old-school checklists.”

Christie Marotta

Co-founder, Jardim & Marotta

Company Profile

Based in New Bedford, Mass., Jardim & Marotta provides accounting services for a wide range of clients across New England. The seven-person firm specializes in tax returns for small businesses, but has other offerings, including 401K plan audits. Co-founder Christie Marotta has an audit background and said 401K audits help keep the business busy outside tax season. 

“It’s a way to help with the seasonality of our business,” she explained. “Even though we do a fair bit of business consulting, it’s nice to have that summer work from a revenue standpoint and to keep that skillset sharp.”

Challenge

Jardim & Marotta had used an audit solution to help with its 401K audits in the past. But that product had no guidance features, forcing the firm to purchase a supplemental guidance tool from another vendor. 

“The guidance wasn’t built in and it was a hassle to get the two products to integrate,” Marotta said. “We wanted one product to provide both the guidance and the working papers and reports functionality.”

Solution

Marotta decided to switch to OnPoint EBP over two years ago and hasn’t looked back. Having the built-in guidance was key, she said.

OnPoint EBP is an intelligent audit solution that includes:

• Audit documentation and reporting with enhanced review tools that track information changes
• Integrated AICPA-guided methodology
• Automatic drafting of financial statements and notes disclosures
• Built-in analytics and collaboration features
• Diagnostics that show when a response might require more consideration

Marotta said OnPoint EBP has been instrumental in allowing her firm to continue offering 401K audits.

“We have the skills and we have the experience,” she explained. “But you can’t just do one or two audits a year. If you do that, you’ll miss the new standards and guidance. We need to do at least 10 to stay sharp and ensure our continuing education and our quality review pays off. And tools like OnPoint EBP allow us to do that.”

Results

OnPoint EBP has made Jardim & Marotta’s audits more efficient, allowing the firm to handle more audits than in the past.

“We used to have three audit staff and we’d typically handle eight audits a year,” Marotta said. “Now there’s just two of us and we’re able to do more.”

Marotta likes OnPoint’s ability to take auditors through an engagement step-by-step.

“For me, OnPoint’s appeal is its question-driven format,” she said. “It’s great for our younger staff because the questions ensure audit standards are followed. It’s more intuitive than referring to old-school checklists.”

Two other features Marotta likes are OnPoint’s integrated formatting and risk assessment capabilities. Not having to format reports herself is a huge timesaver, she noted, and having the formatting built into the product means all the reports have one uniform, professional look, no matter who produced them. And the risk assessment feature ensures Jardim & Marotta are able to flag potential plan issues. 

“Just because we’re a small firm doesn’t mean we don’t do quality engagements,” Marotta said. “OnPoint EBP helps us deliver engagements that meet or exceed our clients’ expectations.”

Find out how Caseware’s OnPoint EBP can help your firm deliver efficient, high-quality employee benefit plan audits.