For auditors & CPA firms
Find the next plan. Know the filing first.
Find likely first-audit transitions and reported accountant changes, then open the public filing evidence before outreach begins.
Finding them.
A plan entering large-plan status for the first time may not yet have an incumbent plan auditor. Its corporate CPA may still get the first call, but the public filing can identify the transition before outreach begins.
First-audit candidatesPlans approaching large-plan filing status
Continuing defined-contribution plans use beginning-of-year participants with account balances. From 80 through 120 inclusive, the administrator may elect the preceding filing category; participant count is only the first step in the audit analysis.
TransitionsPlans reporting an accountant change
Schedule H line 3c identifies the accountant reported for each year. A change indicates a transition, but the filing does not establish who initiated it or why.
GapsLarge-plan filings with no accountant named
Where the filing category and attachment record call for review but the filing names no independent qualified public accountant. We do not infer one to fill the column. “No accountant named” means the filing named none.
Knowing what you’re walking into.
Where an audit report was attached, the latest filed report is public and can inform a more defensible fee quote.
OpinionWhat the previous auditor concluded
Opinion type and any additional paragraphs, read from the report itself. A standard §103(a)(3)(C) report uses the distinct two-part opinion required by AU-C 703. The election is normal scope context, not a disclaimer or red flag.
ScopeWhat management elected
An ERISA §103(a)(3)(C) election changes the procedures applied to certified investment information. The rest of the plan remains subject to audit.
FindingsWhat the statement disclosed
Delinquent participant contributions, going-concern language, and contribution-formula complexity: the things that decide whether this is a straightforward engagement or a difficult one.
What this is not.
Worth being direct about the limits, because a tool that hides them is a tool you will eventually get burned by.
- The public record lags. Form 5500 filings are due roughly seven months after plan year-end and are commonly amended, so nothing here is real-time, for anyone.
- It is not professional advice. Filing-category screens, opinion classifications and prospect signals are informational aids for prioritizing outreach. They are not legal, accounting, audit, tax or investment advice, and using them creates no professional engagement.
- It does not do the audit. It tells you which plans to look at and what the last engagement looked like. The judgment stays yours.
- Extracted facts carry a confidence indicator, and low-confidence extractions are flagged for human review.
In active development.
5500RADAR is pre-launch. There’s no public sign-up yet. If you run or work in an employee benefit plan audit practice and want to see it, or to tell us what would make it useful, get in touch and we’ll follow up directly.
Or email tkadura@5500radar.com directly.