Independent School Accounting & Consulting
Independent schools are responsible to a diverse constituency from students, parents, families and alumni to donors, directors and community leaders. With the exponential growth of technology and the advent of social media, missteps have the potential to cause irreparable reputational damage. Now more than ever, transparency demands effective controls, accurate reporting and experienced external resources.
Meet Our Professionals
Our longstanding commitment to serving not-for-profit organizations and special forte in independent schools equip us to bring meaningful experience and practical knowledge to administrators and their governing boards. In addition to outstanding audit, assurance and tax services, our advisory support helps managers address business issues that grow in quantity and complexity with every graduating class.
In specialized knowledge and expertise lie solutions to the challenges faced by today’s independent schools.
Talented Teams, Partner Commitment
Leveraging their in-depth understanding of how independent schools operate, our senior partners are actively involved in leading teams throughout every step of the engagement. Our accounting professionals regularly work onsite to complete an audit without interruption to you or our agreed-upon deadlines. As needed, our tax specialists assist with Form 990 compliance, Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) issues, and payroll and sales tax matters, among other concerns.
Skilled advisors provide guidance in other areas, such as managing facilities and endowment return and accounting as well as opportunities to reduce overhead and develop non-tuition revenue streams. With indispensable insight, our teams remain readily accessible year-round to ensure that potential accounting and operational problems are identified early and addressed promptly. We regularly invite clients to participate in executive forums and roundtable meetings to stay abreast of emerging issues that may affect them.
Cyber Risk Management Services
The speed with which cybersecurity risks evolve is as staggering as the magnitude of the liability associated with attack. To protect against these threats, PKF O’Connor Davies can help implement practical risk assessment frameworks that include continuous monitoring and real-time assessments. Our specialists can help engineer tailored solutions to protect application information and network security, prepare for disaster recovery and business continuity and deliver training
Comprehensive Service
We are pleased to provide specialized support across the full range of independent school operations, including:
- Campus expansion
- Capital improvements, including IT enhancements
- Cybersecurity
- Development and fundraising
- Donor communications
- Investment performance
- Endowment fund accounting
- Employee compensation and benefits, including 403(b) and 457 plans
- Tuition discounting
- Collection of receivables
- Board governance, including conflict of interest policies
- Restrictions on net assets