Our specialization

MAF AUDITORES has a broad experience reviewing evidencing accounts of RDI programmes financed by the European Commission result of the large number of inspections commissioned by different European Union agencies and belonging to several projects of the 6th Framework Programme (more than 42 audits, corresponding to more than 95 projects).

MAF AUDITORES provides all the auditing services specifically required by the 7th Framework Programme, as well as other services aimed at improving the administrative and accounting procedures determined by the recipient for the calculation of cost, in order to minimize any risk of conflict with the European Commission which could arise during the justification stage.

We could classify the services we offer the recipients of the grants belonging to the 7th Framework Programme into two groups:

• ISSUE OF CERTIFICATES WHICH COULD BE REQUIRED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION:
  • CFS: Certificate on the Financial Statement (if the community grant exceeds € 375 000).
  • CoM: Certificate on the Methodology for Personnel and Indirect Costs.
  • COMAV: Certificate on the Methodology for Average Personnel Costs.
• OTHER WORKS WHICH ARE NOT REQUIRED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, BUT ARE USEFUL FOR INTERNAL USE OF THE RECIPIENT:

Review of documentation evidencing the expenditures charged to European Commission projects, in which auditing certificates are not required.

Review of administrative and accounting procedures, in order to verify their suitability to generate a documentation allowing the appropriate justification of costs charged to the project.

Expenditure calculation based on the general accounting data.

From January 2014, the 7th Framework Programme will be replaced by the HORIZON 2020 Programme.

Audit of grants awarded to NGOs

MAF AUDITORES has gathered a broad experience and specialization developing reports and certificates on the accounts evidencing grants belonging to projects accomplished by NGOs, foundations and other non-profitmaking entities established throughout the Spanish territory.

We have carried out almost 300 reviews evidencing accounts of NGOs ordered by the recipient of the grant, as well as by its grantor, specifically the Directorate General for Development Cooperation and Civil Protection (DG ECHO) in the name of the European Commission.

Since 2009, MAF AUDITORES leads in Spain the contract with the European Commission auditing development cooperation projects in our country, having performed in the name of ECHO, more than 16 audits of the main Spanish NGOs, more than 76 reviews of projects, both in their headquarters and in the geographical locations where the projects are taking place (mainly in Latin America).

On the other hand, since 2010, MAF AUDITORES participates as expert in training seminaries and courses given by DG ECHO and aimed at the Spanish NGOs, held in our country and, also, in international panels focused on this area.

Read more about Our experience with the European Commission.

Audit of agricultural cooperatives

MAF AUDITORES has an extensive experience from over 25 years in the development of financial audits of cooperatives.

Given the highly agricultural character of Andalusia, most of the cooperatives reviewed operated in this scope.

As a result of this ample experience, MAF Auditores has a high degree of specialization and a full knowledge of the economic, accounting and financial problems arising in this kind of cooperative, which makes the troubleshooting for the different problems and situations coming up in their day-to-day activities much easier.

Currently, there are some additional challenges affecting all agricultural cooperatives. These challenges are related to:

• Determinating the cooperative and extra-cooperative results
• Fixing the purchase price of agricultural products for the cooperative members.

The challenge related to the share capital and its repercussion on the accounting of the cooperative, its classification as totally or partially “returnable” or “non-returnable”.

Thanks to its specialization in this kind of cooperative, MAF AUDITORES provides in their audits an added value highly appreciated to successfully face these challenges.

Audits and advisory services for irrigation communities

The highly agricultural character of the autonomous community of Andalusia along with the water scarcity of our region caused by its limited rainfall emphasizes the importance of the “irrigation communities” especially in Andalusia and the south of Spain.

These entities could be defined as non-profitmaking organisations of people owning an irrigation area who join together by law to administrate common and independently the public water. The irrigation communities have a special financial and economic system which forces the community members to pay equitably the common expenditure on operation, maintenance, repairment and improvement, as well as the corresponding redevances and fares.

Since MAF AUDITORES is aware of the important responsibility taken by the governing board of the irrigation communities and, specially, their chairmen, which arises from the duty of properly managing the accounts of the entity; we offer them our specialized knowledge and experience to help them carrying out their tasks.

The services we offer irrigation communities are:

• Accounting auditing
• Review of the system of internal administrative control.
• Development of the annual budget and its subsequent settlement.
• Continuous economic and financial advice to the governing board.
• Continuous accounting and administrative training, retraining and support for the administrative staff.
• Outsourcing of accounting and administrative tasks.
• Etc.

Considering the general difficulties concerning employment creation in our country and, specifically, in Andalusia, the activity carried out by the Special Employment Centres is totally praiseworthy.

Among other things, they facilitate the occupational integration of people with disabilities.

Since quite a while, MAF AUDITORES has provided its economic and financial consulting and auditing services to this kind of corporation which are normally promoted by associations of people with disabilities and/or their relatives.

For this reason, we widely know the economic, financial and accounting problems arising in Andalusian Special Employment Centres of any kind, area and size.

In order to make these companies as transparent as possible and to guarantee an efficient financial management, MAF AUDITORES audits more than ten Special Centres every year, allowing them, thanks to our reports, to submit more reliable and verified annual accounts to the official public agencies to which they mix, promoting a more fluid relationship.

Advisory services for subsidiaries of foreign companies

The great effects of globalisation on business world make a growing number of companies look into the possibilities of establishing branches, offices and subsidiaries abroad.

Spain offers many attractions for investors, due both to its economic and geostrategic aspects.

Spain affords numerous benefits such as its favourable geographical location, large domestic market, modern infrastructures, competitive labour costs, tax breaks on RDI, etc., which make this country an ideal place to invest; furthermore Spain represents an excellent launchpad to jump into the Latin American market.

MAF AUDITORES is able to help those multinational companies willing to start up business in Spain with all the aspects concerning their establishment, for example:

• Legal incorporation and company domiciliation.
• Staff selection.
• Bookkeeping.
• Referral of monthly/quarterly reports to the foreign parent company.
• Tax assessment.
• Compliance of legal requirements in the Mercantile Register.
• Etc.

Development of accounting and financial statements according to the requirements established by the parent company.

Our professionals are trained to provide these services in different languages, with the guarantee of quality supported by our membership to the Worldwide Association PRIME GLOBAL.

It is important to remember that Spain is worldwide the country with the most surface devoted to the cultivation of the vine and the largest producer of wine. For this reason, the wine sector has an important weight in the business sector of our country.

In recent years there has been a notable increase in competition among companies in the sector, which forces them to be more efficient in their production processes and to improve the quality of their products.

In this context, MAF AUDITORES , due to its extensive experience in the bodeguero sector, provides specialized services in the field of:

• Audits and limited reviews of accounting
• Advice on budget preparation and control
• Detailed studies on unit costs of sales
• Verification of stocks of finished products, in progress, dry matter, etc.
• Permanent technical support in the application of the sectoral accounting plan and in the preparation of the annual accounts.
• Preparation of the audit certificates required to justify the subsidies received for commercialization in third countries.
• Etc.

The public administrations have been providing the citizen with water and sanitation services, in different legal forms:

• Municipal services (directly the City Council)
• Commercial companies with fully public capital.
• Commercial companies with mixed capital, public-private
• Administrative concessions to private companies

  MAF AUDITORS has known the accounting-financial problems of this sector for years, being an expert in the financial audit and annual accounts of these companies.

  In these entities, the application of the General Sector Accounting Plan is particularly complex, with respect to:

  • Administrative concessions
  • Estimation of customer deterioration
  • The accounting of financing fees
  • The determination of consumption not billed to customers
  • Etc.