Many times, a full financial statement audit may not meet the specific needs of your organization. A business should consider the level of service being rendered is in line with the needs of the user of the financial statements. Often a more cost-effective alternative may be available or performing specific agreed-upon procedures may provide more informative and relative information.
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.