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contractors

There seems to be this small but growing trend of contractors who essentially take over the accounting functions of start-ups
. They handle 2-3 clients a year and essentially do the accounting for them on a part-time basis. It's pretty interesting and is a great business opportunity. What if someone starts up a company w/ a bunch of cpas whose explicit job is to go out and account for companies and deal with auditors for a fee? I'm sure plenty of these firms exist, but I haven't come across some yet. Maybe the non big 4 audit firms experience this a lot more since they have smaller clients. These contractors that I'm dealing with express surprise at times that we're not doing their financials for them, since they've "never" done it at their other companies. Do non big 4 firms actually prepare the financials for these companies? Even post-enron, there are no independence issues? But going back to the business opportunity, this firm can hire accountants with experience dealing w/ or having been auditors, so they're familiar with the process, and can help the audit proceed smoothly.
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