At a glance

Andy is a seasoned financial services professional with experience auditing financial systems, programs and processes for clients from a diverse range of industries. He devotes a significant portion of his career to building client relationships that are rooted in an understanding of their operations and goals through all stages of their business life cycle.

He primarily oversees Assurance and Consulting services to many of the firm’s closely-held businesses.  In addition to specializing in financial reporting in accordance with U.S. GAAP, he uses his experience to offer management advice on topics including: fraud risk mitigation; improving efficiency and effectiveness in internal controls; merger and acquisition due diligence; business sales; capitalization structure; acquisition accounting; and most recently the implementation of the revenue recognition standard (ASC 606).  Clients served have annual revenues ranging from $10M – $1B+.  Andy also oversees internal audit and SOX consulting engagements for public companies.

He routinely mentors and trains staff on assessing risk and designing effective data driven procedures that yield valuable information to clients. As a leader of the Firm’s Risk Advisory Services Team, he oversees the design, execution, and implementation of client risk assessment and audit plans.

Andy joined the Firm in 2007 after receiving first-hand knowledge of Dopkins values and culture as a participant in the Firm’s internship program.

Industries/Clients Served

• Cooperatives
• Employee Benefit Plans
• Health Care
• Manufacturing
• Not-For-Profit
• Privately Held / Family Owned Business
• Publicly Held Companies

Principal Areas of Expertise

• Audit
• Risk Assessments
• Internal Controls
• Fraud Prevention
• Employee Benefit Plans
• Financial Reporting
• Governance
• Risk Management
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Capitalization Structuring
• Transaction Advisory Services
• Lease Standard Implementation & Accounting Services

Dairy Industry Experience

Andy has 14 years of experience serving the dairy industry and is the Partner-in-charge of the firm’s Food & Beverage Practice, of which Dairy is the most significant area of specialization. He serves dairy clients with annual revenues ranging from $10M+ to over $1B and collectively handle in excess of 6B pounds annually of raw conventional and organic milk.

Andy’s experience in the industry covers significant dairy product categories such as: bulk, fluid, cheese, culture, powder, evaporated, by-products and a vast array of specialty products where dairy is main ingredient.  He has extensive experience with branded products (global, national and regional) and private label sold as retail, food-service and wholesale.  Additionally, he is experienced with significant joint-venture agreements, co-manufacturing arrangements and similar collaborations between processors and producers.  He also provides various ongoing milk reporting services to producers and processors.

Dairy Services include:

• Audit and other assurance matters;
• Accounting (GAAP) / Financial Reporting;
• Internal controls and fraud risk mitigation;
• Transactional dairy services:

o   Billing and collections

o   Vendor disbursements including payments to dairy producers

o   Inventory costing, reporting and analysis

o   Producer / Plant ticket accounting and reconciliation (milk balancing)

• Merger and acquisition assistance;
• Review of co-manufacturing arrangements;
• Governmental dairy reporting; and,
• Specialized customer dairy reporting

Designation

• Certified Public Accountant

Affiliations

• 2nd Vice President & Member, Board of Directors, for the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) Atlantic Chapter; Member, NSAC Accounting & Auditing Committee; Programming Advisor, NSAC Annual Conference. Recent conferences have taken place at:
  • Denver, Colorado (2019)
  • Austin, TX (August 2018)
  • Salt Lake City (July 2017)
• Member, Audit Committee, Northeast Cooperative Council (NECC). NECC is a not-for-profit organization of agricultural and rural electric cooperatives, Farm Credit Associations, and their professional advisors doing business in New York, New England, and Pennsylvania. NECC assists members with advisory, educational, and research services to achieve business goals. (2020 – Present)
• Member, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) and serve on the Legal, Tax and Accounting sub-committee.   Admission for professional service providers is limited to nomination by a qualifying organization and further subject to a review and acceptance through an application process by NCFC.  NCFC consists of nearly 2,000 farmer cooperatives located in the U.S. and is focused on advancing the business and policy interests of America’s cooperatives and other farmer-owned enterprises. (2021 – Present)
• Volunteer mentor, to a student group from the Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business – Cooperative Business Management on the topic of “Managing Profits and Losses in a Cooperative Enterprise”.  The goal of the program was to address the need for current and enhanced training materials for Cooperative Board of Directors on the topic.
• Member, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• Member, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA)
• Member, Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)

Education

• B.S. in Accounting from the State University of New York at Fredonia

Awards & Achievements

• Listed, Who’s Who in Banking and Finance, published by Business First of Buffalo
• Honoree, “40 Under 40” by Business First of Buffalo (2021)

Community Service

• Judge, 2022 New York Business Plan Competition. Andy will serve as a Round 2/judge for the statewide  semifinal competition of candidate teams from New York State colleges and universities.
• Treasurer, WNY Regional National Academy of Finance Advisory Board.  The Academy of Finance is a network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to offer high school students an opportunity to study accounting, international trade, leadership, and the use of technology in preparing for college and the financial services industry.
• Treasurer, SUNY Fredonia School of Business Advisory Council.  The Council is comprised of a group of regional business executives dedicated to consulting with the School of Business on the matters of curriculum design and program development.
• Member, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Light the Night Walk Executive Leadership Committee

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, Protecting Against Cyber Threats: Best Practices for Plan Fiduciaries (May 2021)
• Presenter, Strategically Planning for Executive Succession: A conversation about lessons learned from the road, to members of the Northeast Cooperative Council (NECC) at the 70th Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum (February 2020)
• Presenter, Revenue Recognition: It’s not Sexy but You Need to Know, to members of the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) at the 2019 Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado.
• Presenter, Trends in Fraud Prevention– Keeping Up in the Digital Age

News & Events

• Andrew Reading to Serve as a Judge at the 2022 New York Business Plan Competition
• Andrew Reading Named to Business First of Buffalo’s “40 Under 40”
• Dopkins Names Andrew J. Reading Partner
• Dopkins publishes an article on Change Management in Northeast Dairy Magazine
• Dopkins & Company Announces Promotions

Videos

• Protecting Against Cyber Threats: Best Practices for Plan Fiduciaries

Blog Posts

• Consumer products M&A posts second straight quarterly slowdown
• 4 key business issues driving food and beverage companies
• 2022 food and beverage industry outlook
• How a food company is managing its fractured supply chain and costs
• Consumer products M&A insights from the fourth quarter
• CECL: For commercial entities, not just banks
• Employee Benefit Plan Cybersecurity: Are you doing enough?
• As seen in NorthEast Dairy: How to Use Your Innovation to Milk the Government
• Trends in EBP Litigation and EBP Fiduciary Best Practices
• Navigating a Changing Economy and Industry: Managing Profitability Through Lean/Six Sigma
• Mergers & Acquisitions: Risk Considerations in Transactions