Cassell Plan Audits

Challenge

Cassell Plan Audits needed a solution designed specifically for auditing employee benefit plans.

Solution

Cassell selected OnPoint EBP, a cloud-based solution that offers precise guidance for focused, high-quality EBP audits.

Results

Cassell’s distributed team is able to collaborate effectively as they perform EBP audits for plan sponsors across the U.S.

“I like that OnPoint EBP isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. We can modify it to fit our workflow so we can be more efficient.”

JoAnn Cassell

Founder, Cassell Plan Audits

Company profile

Cassell Plan Audits is a Saint Charles, Ill.-based accounting and business advisory firm specializing in employee benefit plan (EBP) audits and related services. Founder JoAnn Cassell started the nine-person company nearly 10 years ago after specializing in EBP audits at a large accounting firm.

Cassell said she enjoys the investigative aspect of auditing. “You get to see if things happened the way they were supposed to happen,” she explained. “And if they didn’t, what went wrong?” 

She also likes working with clients to improve their plans. “If I find an issue, the client can fix it and make their plan better,” she said. “It’s not a bad thing if there are issues. It’s definitely better that your auditor finds any problems before the IRS does.”

The majority of Cassells’ clients have between 100 and 400 employees and lack benefits departments that understand the intricacies of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the federal law that establishes standards for retirement and health plans in the private sector.

Challenge

Cassell had been using an EBP audit solution for several years, but in 2021 the vendor stopped selling licenses to smaller firms. 

“We shopped around and OnPoint EBP seemed like the best fit for us,” Cassells said. “It’s designed specifically for people who audit U.S. benefit plans and it did everything we needed it to do.”

Solution

Cassell appreciated that OnPoint EBP didn’t require her firm to change its processes and procedures. “I like that OnPoint EBP isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition,” she said. “We can modify it to fit our workflow so we can be more efficient.”

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

Results

Cassell’s team enjoys using OnPoint EBP because of its workflow. “It’s great that everything is connected,” Cassel said. “There are clear connections from one piece to another. We like how the whole process flows.”

All of Cassell’s employees are remote, so she says it’s nice how OnPoint is able to show what everyone is working on. 

Cassell also likes that the OnPoint EBP team is responsive to feedback and the product has improved over time. “I had some great conversations with them at a recent AICPA conference,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of licenses, so they’re not talking to me just to make money. I feel like they just want to make sure I’m a happy customer regardless of my company’s size.”

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