Understanding Your Attest Engagement Needs

Traditional financial statement audit engagements render an opinion on the basic financial statements and corresponding footnote disclosures, as a whole. Attestation examination engagements render an opinion on specific financial and nonfinancial data or processes. Attestation review engagements offer limited assurance on such data or processes. Parties who are interested in gaining a comfort level regarding such data or processes would be well served to explore the service offering.

To evaluate the potential of an attestation examination service offering, an interested party needs to consider the types of financial and non-financial data or processes for which they need an opinion rendered by an independent accounting firm.

Attestation Examination Engagement Examples

The following are just a few examples, where an attestation examination engagement could make sense for your organization:

  • A company is conducting a marketing survey and they would like a report on the results of that survey, as to whether it is fairly stated. Here, an attestation examination engagement would make sense.
  • A company wants to report to its investors that its process for recording revenue in accordance with the products sold or the service performed is reasonable. For this type of engagement, and attestation examination would make sense.
  • The same company wants to provide limited assurance to its investors on its process for recording revenue. For this type of engagement, an attestation review engagement would make sense.
  • A real estate company would like to issue a report to its tenants that its individual tenant security deposit accounts are reasonable when compared to the underlying obligations to those tenants. For this type of engagement, an attestation examination is appropriate.
  • A charitable organization is conducting a raffle and they want to represent to their constituents that the processes underlying the conduct of the raffle are reasonable. For this type of engagement, an attestation examination is appropriate.

Contact Us

For more information on attestation examination engagements and determining what type meets your business needs, contact Withum’s Assurance and Accounting team.

Leadership

John M. Mortenson

Partner

East Brunswick, NJ

Michael M. Kulick

Partner

Whippany, NJ

Marc Silverman

Partner

Whippany, NJ

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