Auditing, Attestation, and Assurance Services

Auditing, Attestation, and Assurance Services

Auditing, attestation, and assurance services are all very important services offered by the auditing community. Each of these services offers the client with valuable information to help them or their business. Many different types of clients will require these services. Some may need only one service, and some may need all three services. The type of service needed depends on each individual client.

There are many standards that apply to each of these services. These standards can help ensure that the service is done effectively. These standards consist of general standards, fieldwork standards, and reporting standards.

Types of Services

What Are Auditing Services?

According to Boynton & Johnson (2006), auditing is “a systematic process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions about economic actions and events to ascertain the degree of correspondence between those assertions and established criteria and communicating the results to interested users” (p. 6). An example of an audit service would be a Compliance Audit. Compliance audit, according to Boynton & Johnson 2006, is the “obtaining and evaluating evidence to determine whether certain financial or operating activities of an entity conform to specified conditions, rules, or regulations” ( p. 8).

What Are Attestation Services?

Boynton& Johnson (2006), states that the attest service, “is one in which the CPA firm issues a written communication that expresses a conclusion about the reliability of a written assertion that is the responsibility of another party” (p. 13). An example is, attesting to a forest. Let’s say that there are two companies that want to merge with one another. They would want to look into the financial records. From there they examine the financial forecast and look at the projections so that they can come up with some hypothetical financial statement for the future period. From that hypothetical statement, the companies can see whether the merge is beneficial to both of them and move forward or back out.

What Are Assurance Services?

“Assurance services are independent professional services that improve the quality of information or its context, for decision makers” (Boynton & Johnson, 2006, p. 11). This service can do so by improving its relevance or reliability. An example of this service would be a CPA Performance View. This is a service that provides the company with an assurance that they are using both nonfinancial and financial measures in evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. (Boynton & Johnson, 2006, p. 14)

Users of Audits, Attestations, or Assurance