Auditors and financial advisors have a new resource to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of financial documents.
CPA.com and Confirmation.com today announced the launch of RIVIO Clearinghouse, which delivers CPA source-validated financial documents such as audited financial statements to bankers, shareholders and other investors. These documents are available through a secure, cloud-based platform that offers stronger fraud prevention and more sophisticated controls than existing delivery methods.
Private companies are the backbone of the U.S. economy, making up the overwhelming majority of the nation’s 28 million businesses. Unlike with public companies, whose key data is accessible through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system, there is no central repository for private company financial information. As a result, many private businesses still rely on outdated methods to distribute financial statements, tax forms and other key documents, such as mailing or hand delivering paper copies or emailing unsecure files. Banks, private equity firms and other users of this information have little way of knowing if the data they receive has been altered.
The RIVIO Clearinghouse transforms how private company financial information is exchanged by:
- Validating that a financial document has been uploaded by a licensed CPA firm
- Eliminating the possibility that company management can change data once it is uploaded by the CPA firm
- Allowing companies complete control over who can view the information, so financial data remains private and protected
- Providing anytime, anywhere access to the information, which can speed lending decisions and other business transactions
- Protecting private company information with encryption and an IT architecture tested by rigorous security audits
“In today’s digital world, bankers and investors are expecting authenticated sources of data,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “The RIVIO Clearinghouse uniquely provides a system where only licensed CPA firms can upload audited and reviewed financial statements used by lenders, private equity firms and others.”
The online clearinghouse was developed jointly by CPA.com and Confirmation.com, a company that offers a market-leading solution for electronic audit confirmations and is well known in both the accounting profession and the banking industry. RIVIO—an acronym for Repository of Intelligent Validated Inputs and Outputs—has been in a pilot phase with leading firms for the past year and was named a 2016 Top New Product by Accounting Today. The clearinghouse does not replace or compete with firm or bank portals, since it was designed specifically for transferring information between three distinct user groups with features relevant to each. In time, the RIVIO Clearinghouse can be integrated into these portals.
“One of the key benefits of the new clearinghouse is fraud prevention,” said Brian Fox, CPA, president and founder of Confirmation.com. “It’s easy to alter a paper financial document or create a bogus PDF, but the RIVIO Clearinghouse prevents changes once a CPA firm uploads a financial statement. That provides piece of mind for lenders and other interested parties.”
For more information about the clearinghouse, please visit RIVIO.com
“There are legal and reputational issues that can impact a CPA firm when a fraudster misuses their name or unscrupulous executives alter numbers in an otherwise legitimate audit report,” Asgeirsson said. “The RIVIO Clearinghouse eliminates many of these concerns while also maintaining the privity defense for firms.”
