JMM CPA

Company Profile

JMM CPA is a Northbrook, Ill.-based firm specializing in audits of qualified employee benefit plans across the U.S. The 10-person company has offices in four states and has been in business for approximately eight years. Founder James Moyna has specialized in auditing employee benefit plans for more than 20 years and previously worked as a partner in a national accounting firm.

Some auditors might wonder how a company dedicated to auditing qualified benefit plans stays busy all year long, Moyna said. “It’s not a problem at all,” he explained. “These audits need a lot of attention. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of cooks in the kitchen — the client, the third-party administrator, the investment advisor. There are a lot of elements that need to be maintained, planned and communicated.”

Many traditional firms audit benefit plans in the summer, when business is slower, Moyna said, but he prefers a more client-centric approach. “We perform the audit at a time and in a fashion that suits the client’s business needs and fits the regulatory compliance guidelines and deadlines our clients need to meet for these audits.”

Challenge

JMM had relied on a benefits plan-focused software solution to help manage its engagements. The software used a combination of Microsoft Excel tables for calculations and Microsoft Word for written descriptions. “The Excel tables had to be cut and pasted into the Word document and you had to fiddle with the formatting,” Moyna recalled. “You had to make sure everything looked nice before it was finalized and there was a lot of manual manipulation required.”

Then a few years ago, JMM’s solutions provider told Moyna it would no longer be servicing firms of JMM’s size, deciding instead to focus only on its largest customers. “We knew we needed to find a new engagement solution quickly,” he said. “But we also wanted to make sure it met our needs.”

Solution

Moyna had recently seen a promotional email for Caseware’s OnPoint EBP and requested a product demonstration. “We had some managers who thought it would be a great solution for us, so we went ahead and adopted it,” he said. “And we’ve been very satisfied with it.”

“OnPoint EBP takes all that information and automatically builds out the financial statements. So the profile you fill out feeds into the end product. It just works really well. Once you get that profile right, your financial statement will almost certainly be right.”

OnPoint EBP is an intelligent audit solution, developed through a partnership between the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), CPA.com and Caseware. It includes:

• Built-in, EBP-specific work papers 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

“It walks you from Point A to Point B. So you start with client acceptance, get that document signed off, then move to planning, which it walks you through. Then you’re on to the fieldwork and that’s built based on how you completed the planning. That workflow is a great feature.”

JMM found OnPoint EBP to be user-friendly and easy to learn. “With OnPoint, the biggest single document you need to fill out is the plan profile that tells you what the plan is, who the sponsor is, how it works, what the contributions are, whether it allows for loans – it’s very comprehensive,” Moyna explained. “OnPoint takes all that information and builds out the financial statements. So the profile you fill out feeds into the end product. It just works really well. Once you get that profile right, your financial statement will almost certainly be right. Rarely have we had to make a manual adjustment.”

With the plan profile set up, it’s simple to keep rolling it forward year-over-year, Moyna said. “You’re just maintaining that same profile and editing for any changes that may have happened. So in later years, the efficiency gains are huge.”

When it comes to the engagement, Moyna said. OnPoint does a good job of taking auditors through the required steps chronologically. Some other software will show you the entire file at once, which can be intimidating, but OnPoint doesn’t do that.

“It walks you from Point A to Point B. So you start with client acceptance, get that document signed off, then move to planning, which it walks you through. Then you’re on to the fieldwork and that’s built based on how you completed the planning. That workflow is a great feature.”

Results

OnPoint EBP has noticeably improved JMM CPA’s efficiency. “Since making the switch to OnPoint I’d estimate we’ve reduced the time spent on reporting by between 15 and 20 percent,” Moyna said.

Client collaboration has also improved as a result of OnPoint’s integrated cloud features. Clients can now upload documents securely through the cloud. Those documents can then easily be pulled into the audit file. “It’s a great system,” Moyna said. “The person that uploads the document from the client side is the only one who can see it, so it’s very secure. If we have multiple contacts at a particular client, they all can’t see the documents others have uploaded.”

Conducting engagements through OnPoint has made it easier to keep up to date with changing industry standards, Moyna noted. “It’s developed with input from the AICPA. So I know the latest standards are going to be in there.”

And there are built-in references to professional guidance included, so if an auditor is working on a procedure they don’t fully understand, they can check the guidance to ensure everything is correct.

Moyna also appreciates that OnPoint EBP has an array of integrated remote features, making it simpler to work with far-flung colleagues and clients.

“The client who uploads the document from their side is the only one who can see it, so it’s very secure.”

JMM CPA is very much a remote-first firm, Moyna noted. But OnPoint makes it simple to collaborate with team members in other states, work on documents together at the same time and see changes as they happen. “It’s almost like the old days of being able to walk down the hall and talk with someone who frequently works out of a particular client’s site to get their knowledge,” he said. “With OnPoint we’re able to run through our questions and get them answered in real time.”

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