Accounting & Reporting for Financial Services

Fair value measurement, expected credit losses, financial instrument classification and regulatory-aware reporting - the technical spine of financial-services accounting, handled by Big Four–trained CPAs who work in these standards every day.

Why financial services is different

A financial-services balance sheet is not a list of trucks and inventory - it is a portfolio of instruments whose value, classification and impairment are judgment calls under some of the most demanding standards in the codification: fair value measurement (ASC 820 / IFRS 13), credit losses (ASC 326 CECL / IFRS 9 ECL), financial instrument classification and derecognition, and the disclosures that go with all of them. Getting these wrong is not a bookkeeping error; it is a restatement, a qualified opinion or a regulatory finding.

This is where we are most at home. Our practice was built by professionals trained on financial-services engagements at the largest accounting firms, and the same technical depth runs through everything we do here - from a fund’s NAV support file to a lender’s ECL model documentation to a broker-dealer’s control environment.

Banks & Lending Institutions

Credit losses done defensibly

CECL (ASC 326) and IFRS 9 ECL: staging, probability-of-default and loss-given-default assumptions, forward-looking adjustments and the documentation that supports them
Loan portfolio accounting: amortized cost, fees and costs (ASC 310-20), troubled-debt and modification accounting
Model governance: assumption memos, back-testing support and audit-ready evidence for every management estimate
Regulatory alignment: financial reporting that reconciles cleanly to call-report and supervisory expectations

Broker-Dealers

Reporting that stands up to SEC and FINRA scrutiny

Financial reporting: statements prepared with the rigor annual audited filings demand
Net capital awareness: books structured so net capital computations are supportable, not reverse-engineered
Customer protection: client money and custody treatment assessed against the applicable recognition guidance
Controls and FOCUS-report readiness: close processes designed so recurring regulatory reporting is a by-product of the books, not a scramble

Investment Funds & Capital Companies

Fair value and fund reporting

Fair value measurement (ASC 820 / IFRS 13): valuation policy design, level 1-3 hierarchy classification and the disclosure package that follows
Investment classification: trading, available-for-sale and equity-method judgments under ASC 320/323 and IFRS 9 / IAS 28
NAV support: capital account maintenance, allocations, management and performance fee calculations
Fund financial statements: full GAAP or IFRS financial statements with schedules of investments, and the investment-entity assessment under IFRS 10 where it applies

Fintech

Controls and accounting that keep pace with the product

Revenue recognition: platform fees, interchange, payment flows and principal-versus-agent analysis under ASC 606
Client money: whether customer balances belong on your balance sheet - a question that changes your financial statements fundamentally
Scalable controls: COSO-aligned control design that satisfies partners, sponsor banks and future diligence without strangling a small team
Diligence and audit readiness: clean books and documented positions before the Series B data room or the first financial statement audit

Advisors & Asset Managers

Clean books behind the advice

Fee revenue: management and advisory fee recognition, including performance-based components and variable consideration
Compliance-aware bookkeeping: books maintained with custody-rule and examination sensitivity in mind
Owner reporting: entity-level and personal tax planning integrated with the practice’s financials

How we typically engage

Some clients hand us the entire finance function - bookkeeping, close, technical accounting and tax. Others bring a single hard question: an ECL model that needs documentation, a fair-value hierarchy that needs defending, a client-money analysis before a regulator asks. Both work. Every engagement is senior-led, fixed-fee and scoped in writing before we begin.

Start with a free self-check

These free, no-signup self-checks cover the questions financial-services teams bring us most. Each one links to the governing standard.

CECL scoping self-check (ASC 326) - does the current expected credit loss model apply to your assets?
IFRS 9 expected credit loss self-check - staging and measurement basics for your portfolio
Investment classification self-check (ASC 320) - trading, AFS or held-to-maturity?
Financial instrument disclosures self-check (IFRS 7) - which disclosures your instruments trigger
Client money recognition self-check - should customer balances sit on your balance sheet?
Investment entity exemption self-check (IFRS 10) - does your fund consolidate - or measure at fair value?

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you work with regulated entities directly?

Yes. We support banks, broker-dealers, funds and advisers on the accounting and reporting side - the books, the technical positions, the controls and the financial statements. Where a filing requires an independent audit, we prepare you for it and work alongside your auditor rather than replacing them.

Can you document a position our auditor will challenge?

That is the core of the work. Every technical conclusion we deliver comes as a written memo citing the governing literature - ASC or IFRS paragraph by paragraph - so the position survives auditor review and regulator inquiry, not just the meeting where it was decided.

We are a small fintech - is this overkill?

The standards do not scale down because the company is small; a two-person fintech holding customer money faces the same recognition question as a bank. What scales is the engagement: we fit the scope to your stage, and fixed fees mean you know the cost before we start.

Bring us the instrument, the model, or the regulator’s question.

Senior professionals who work in ASC 820, ASC 326, IFRS 9 and the rest of the financial-instruments literature every day - at fixed fees, fully remote.

Book a financial-services discovery call