Book Seeks to Clarify and Improve the Work of Nonprofit Audit Committees

Not-For-Profit Audit Committee: Best Practices
by Warren Ruppel

Recent accounting scandals and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have increased scrutiny of nonprofit organizations’ financial governance, and made the work of audit committees both more important and more complicated, writes Warren Ruppel.

In this book, Mr. Ruppel, an accountant who has worked with government and nonprofit groups for 25 years, attempts to clarify how audit committees created by nonprofit boards can develop appropriate accounting practices and safeguards.

Mr. Ruppel’s book answers questions about how to set up an audit committee, establish its operating rules, determine which requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act nonprofit groups should embrace even though only a few parts of the law apply directly to them, as well as how they should develop reporting practices and standards.

The author also describes the audit committee’s responsibilities in preventing fraud, the relationship between such committees and independent auditors, and the role of internal controls and of whistleblower-protection programs.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030-5774; (201) 748-6000; fax (201) 748-6088; http://www.wiley.com; 165 pages; $45; ISBN 0-471-69741-9.