Travis McAuliffe joined Symbiosis International in July 2015 to help bring the organisation up to speed with accounting and reporting standards.
With the full support of the Symbiosis International Board, Travis appointed MGI to audit the 2014 and 2015 years and to identify what needed to change to ensure they met Australian accounting standards.
“This was an immense undertaking,” Travis said.
“MGI had to audit two consecutive years because comparative figures from previous years were not calculated or presented on the same basis.
“However, MGI was very supportive of what we were trying to achieve.
“They acknowledged the noble intent of our organisation and helped us to take key steps to bring our financial reporting up to the standard expected of a charity our size.”
The greater challenge, however, was consolidating Australian and Bangladesh accounts. Because the Bangladesh operations are controlled by the Australian entity, its accounts needed to reflect the operations of the Bangladesh division, but this had not previously been done.
“While Symbiosis had engaged a Bangladesh firm to audit the local accounts for the Bangladesh government, this was carried out on project by project bases,” Travis said.
“Thus there were 25 projects needing to be consolidated, a difference between Australian and Bangladesh accounting standards needing to be bridged, and language and cultural differences that came into play.