Attestation services provided by CA firms
Attest Services occur when a practitioner is engaged to issue or does issue a report on subject matter or an assertion about subject matter that is the responsibility of another party. It is a consulting service in which a CPA (Certified Public Accountants) expresses a conclusion about the reliability of a written statement that is the responsibility of someone else.
Attestation service: The main attestation services are.
- Audit
- Examination
- Review
- Agree upon procedure.
Audit: The primary examples of audit service is the financial statement audit, this type of audit involves obtaining and evaluation evidence about an entity’s historical financial statement which contest assertion made by the entity’s management. Based on an audit the CPA issues a positive expression of opinion whether the statements are presented fairly and confirm with “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles”.
Examination: The term examination is used to describe other services that culminate in the positive expression of an opinion as to whether or not another party’s assertions confirmed to stated criteria. Examples include examinations of a Prospective financial statement, Management’s assertions about the effectiveness of an entity’s internal control structure, an entity’s compliance with specified laws or regulations.
Review: A review service consists primarily of enquires of an entity’s management and comparative analysis of financial information. The scope of this service is significantly less than that of an auditor examination. The purpose is to give “negative assurance” as opposed to the positive expression of opinion given in an audit.
Agreed upon procedure: The scope of work in performing agreed-upon procedures is also then that in an audit or examination. For example, the client and the CPA firm may agree that certain procedures will be performed on only sacrificed elements in accounts in a financial statement an opposed to the financial statement as a whole.
