What Does Attestation Mean?

AnnittaAugust 23, 2022

198 5 minutes read

Attestation services have gained in popularity in recent years, as the necessity for an independent party to provide assurance on areas other than financial statements has become mandated by legislation, regulators, or service clients. This blog will provide an overview of attestation services, including definitions, standards, and also provide guidelines for attestation services..visit Attestation services in Dubai.

In auditing, what do attestation services mean?

An attestation service or engagement is the process of hiring a CPA to do assurance or attestation audits on services like examinations, reviews, or reports produced in accordance with agreed-upon procedures. The following topics can be assured using these services: agreed-upon procedures, prospective financial statements, compliance, management discussion and analysis (MD&A), and service organizations.

Audit vs. Attestation. What makes them distinct?

There is no remedy. An attestation is a kind of audit because it expresses a conclusion.

The regulatory standards for attestation services continue to be consistent with those found in generally recognised auditing standards as their scope expands (GAAS). These standards uphold fundamental auditing principles such as the necessity for technical expertise, independence, due professional care, proper planning and supervision, enough evidence, and suitable reporting.

The Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 18, Attestation Standards: Clarification and Recodification, was published in April 2016 as a result of the AICPA being forced to develop more structured standards due to the expansion of attestation services. This project aimed to simplify and clarify standards for use in engagements.

Here are some of the significant changes discussed.

Assertions

Management should be aware of what an assertion is before signing, according to the assertion breakdown. An assertion gives readers confidence that the management supports the information supplied and that they may rely on the information contained in the report.

Representation Letters

A representation letter must always be obtained by the responsible party in attestation engagements.

What is a letter of attestation?

A letter of representation is the same as a letter of attestation. For additional details, keep reading.

Breakdown of a representation letter: The representation letter is part of the accountant’s work materials, not a piece of the report. The representation letter verifies the claims made to the customer by the practitioner. Examples include the following: the information provided was proper; the records were pertinent; and any known later events have been shared.

Risk-Based Strategy

The use of risk assessments to comprehend the internal controls of the information being reported on, as well as an assessment of substantial misstatements over the information, will be required under new standards.

Breakdown of a risk-based approach: Most of the GAAS standards have historically been regarded as audit standards. Although less comprehensive, the new SSAE 18 standards will now include GAAS standards. Materiality, approximations, sampling, and fraud are a few examples.
Attestation Risk: This risk should also be taken into consideration. This is the danger that the auditor might decide not to change the report because the supplied data was incomplete or erroneous.

Auditor consideration of what is deemed material to the accuracy of the offered opinion is essential to mitigate this type of risk. Additional audit procedures can be necessary to obtain the right level of assurance, depending on what is deemed material.

What are the Attestation Standards?

Attestation standards are intended to offer direction, define a standard of quality, put limits around a developing service line, and specify the goals that should be met when carrying out attestation activities.If you have any help from us ,follow Cheap Attestation services in Dubai for any attestation services.

Although the SSAEs follow many of the GAAS criteria, as was already mentioned, there are two key areas where they diverge. In contrast to GAAS, the SSAE does not refer to financial statements within the reports, as the reports are not focused on providing an accurate representation of them. For the same reason, SSAEs do not include references to GAAS in their reports, which is another difference.

While, as was already established, the SSAEs adhere to many of the GAAS requirements, there are two significant areas where they differ. Unlike GAAS, which refers to financial statements within the reports, the SSAE does not do so because the reports are not concerned with accurately representing them. Another difference is that SSAEs do not refer to GAAS in their reports for the same reason.

Eight fundamental guidelines are followed by all attestation engagements and are common to all of them. Below, they are separated.

1.Compliance

Every engagement should take into account the necessary criteria and how they will be included. Alternative methods should be found if a standard cannot be followed in order to fulfill the requirement’s objectives.

The required requirements and the manner in which they will be included should be considered in every engagement. If a standard cannot be followed, alternative solutions must be sought to achieve the goals of the requirement.

2.Acceptance

For each engagement, a workpaper that details acceptance and the decision to keep working with a customer should be made and kept.

A workpaper detailing acceptance and the choice to continue working with a customer should be created for each engagement and retained.

3.Preconditions

Before accepting an engagement, a few requirements must be met.

Freedom of choice shouldn’t be compromised.
The client must be aware that the topic, as well as its correctness and completeness, is their responsibility.
The engagement topic needs to be relevant, and there needs to be enough data to form an opinion, a conclusion, or findings.

4.Engagement

The company carrying out the engagement should be aware of the criteria for acceptable performance.

The business performing the work should be aware of the standards for acceptable performance.

5.Engagement modifies

A change to the engagement terms should only be made if it is reasonable and not done in an effort to deceive readers.

Only if it is reasonable and not done to intentionally mislead readers could a change to the engagement terms be made.

6.Using the work of another practitioner

It is acceptable to do this as long as sufficient investigation is done to make sure the practitioner complies with the same professional standards as the primary accounting company.

This can be done as long as enough research is done to ensure that the practitioner adheres to the same professional standards as the main accounting firm.

7.Quality Assurance

All auditors’ work must be reviewed by the engagement partner to ensure that it complies with the relevant quality control standards.

The engagement partner must examine each auditor’s work to make sure it adheres to the necessary quality control criteria.

8.Professional

Planning and carrying out attestation work require a healthy dose of skepticism, just like any task where the goal is to provide assurance.

A healthy amount of scepticism is necessary when planning and completing attestation work, just like any activity where the objective is to offer assurance.