编译s, 审查s, and 审计s: Understanding the Levels of 保证

2021年7月7日 - CPAs produce reports that provide different levels of assurance regarding the information contained in the financial statements of their clients. 客户的贷款人, 投资者, and shareholders (or other users of financial information) will experience varying levels of comfort from those reports based on the type of service performed by the CPA. In order to identify the type of service that is right for your organization, it’s critical to understand the significant differences and nuances in the three general levels of financial statement services available: compilation, 审查, 和审计.

编译

在汇编契约中, the CPA does not provide any assurance about whether material changes to the financial statements are needed in order for the financial statements to be in conformity with accounting standards. The CPA applies their accounting and financial reporting expertise to assist management in the presentation of financial statements. The CPA does not verify the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by management, and the CPA does not dig into the numbers unless they become aware that information provided by management is an error or incomplete.

审查

在评审工作中, the CPA provides limited assurance about whether material changes to the financial statements are needed in order for the financial statements to be in conformity with accounting standards. 在进行评审时, the CPA makes inquiries and performs 分析方法 designed to identify unusual items that may need further explanation by management. A CPA must have an understanding of the industry the entity operates in and knowledge of the entity’s business. 然而, the CPA does not obtain an understanding of internal control, 评估控制风险, test accounting records by inspection, 观察, 确认, 重新计算, re-performance, or obtain corroborating evidential matter.

审计

在审计业务中, the CPA provides reasonable assurance (high, but not absolute) about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement whether due to error or fraud.

在进行审计时，注册会计师: 

1. Obtains an understanding of the entity and its internal control
2. Determines and applies appropriate materiality levels 
3. Based on that understanding, identifies and assesses risk of material misstatement
4. Responds to those assessed risks by performing procedures using a combination of inspection, 观察, 确认, re-calculation, re-performance, 分析方法, 和调查 
5. Obtains sufficient and appropriate audit evidence about whether material misstatement exist 

审计的好处包括: 

• Training and assistance with understanding accounting standards and best practices 
• Identification of internal control weaknesses and recommendations for strengthening controls 
• 一个独立的, second set of eyes (for those charges with governance and other users of the financial statements) to help ensure that management has not omitted or misstated important financial information

审计人员在发现舞弊中的作用

审计ors are tasked with designing procedures to provide reasonable assurance that financial statements are free of material misstatement, 无论是由于错误还是欺诈. 审计 standards require an auditor to specifically identify and assess risks that may result in a material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud and to respond to the results of the assessment when gathering and evaluating audit evidence. There are two types a fraud that are relevant to the auditor’s consideration of fraud: misstatements resulting from fraudulent financial reporting and misstatement resulting from misappropriation of assets. An auditor is primarily concerned with fraud that causes a material misstatement of the financial statements. 像这样, the auditor has no responsibility to plan and perform the audit to detect immaterial misstatements due to fraud.

Comparison of an 审计, 审查, and 编译

To identify the type of assurance service that is right for you, it’s critical to understand the significant differences between a compilation, 回顾, and an audit of your organization’s financial statements.