Audit Committee Essentials

Dominic Ferrante, NANA's vice chair and deputy executive director at the National Council of Building Officials, chairs NANA's own finance and audit committee and teaches this course each August, right after most associations' June fiscal year-end brings a new audit to the board table. Ashgrove Audit & Advisory, whose audit and tax practice serves 501(c)(6) and 501(c)(3) organizations, supports the course and contributes questions drawn from its own client audits.

Where an auditor's management letter puts its real findings, separate from the boilerplate language every audit letter carries, and which findings require a documented board response rather than a quiet fix.

The questions an audit committee should ask before voting to accept an audit, including how to probe an internal-control weakness the auditor flagged but didn't elaborate on.

Where an audit committee's oversight role ends and staff's financial-management responsibility begins, a line Dominic Ferrante says most new committee members draw in the wrong place, usually by second-guessing a decision that was management's to make.

Drafting the section of an audit committee charter that defines its authority, its reporting line to the full board, and how often it meets outside the annual audit cycle, using a template the course provides.

Board treasurers, audit committee members, and finance staff who prepare materials for the committee, particularly new members joining right after a fiscal year-end audit lands. Bring your association's most recent management letter; the course works from a real document, not a hypothetical one. Pairs with the Audit Committee Charter Toolkit.

• Read an auditor's management letter for the findings that need a board response

• Question an auditor on internal-control weaknesses before accepting the audit

• Distinguish an audit committee's oversight role from management's own responsibilities

• Draft a charter section defining the committee's authority and reporting line