The mirror standards.Seeing a wide diversity in practice among accountants performing agreed-upon procedures engagements, the auditing standards board In the United States, the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) is the senior technical committee designated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to issue auditing, attestation, and quality control statements, standards and guidance to certified public issued two standards in September 1995. Statement on Auditing Standards no. 75, Engagements to Apply Agreed-Upon Procedures to Specified Elements, Accounts, or Items of a Financial Statement, which supersedes SAS (1) (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, www.sas.com) A software company that specializes in data warehousing and decision support software based on the SAS System. Founded in 1976, SAS is one of the world's largest privately held software companies. See SAS System. no. 35 Special Reports--Applying Agreed-upon Procedures to Specified Elements, Accounts, or Elements of a Financial Statement, and Statement on Standards for Attestation The act of attending the execution of a document and bearing witness to its authenticity, by signing one's name to it to affirm that it is genuine. The certification by a custodian of records that a copy of an original document is a true copy that is demonstrated by his or her Engagements no. 4, Agreed-Upon Procedures Engagements, are effective for reports dated after April 30, 1996, with earlier application encouraged. This article describes some of the similarities--and differences--between the two. THE MIRROR STANDARDS The ASB ASB Asbestos ASB Arbeiter Samariter Bund (German medical help organisation) ASB Anti-Social Behaviour ASB Accounting Standards Board (UK FRC) ASB Aarhus School of Business also issued the standards because it believed existing guidance did not provide detailed guidance on significant issues, such as * The conditions for performing agreed-upon procedures engagements. * The nature, timing and extent of the procedures. * The responsibilities of practitioners and specified users. * Reporting on agreed-upon procedures. Because the standards are similar, they have been called "the mirror standards." What is the major difference between them? SAS no. 75 should be used if a practitioner applies agreed-upon procedures to specified elements, accounts or items of a financial statement. SSAE SSAE Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (auditing) SSAE Stamped Self-Addressed Envelope SSAE Standard South African English SSAE Society Of Senior Aerospace Executives (Washington, DC) no. 4 generally should be used if a practitioner applies agreed-upon procedures to nonfinancial statement subject matter, for example, calculating the number of blocks of streets paved during the year ended March 31, 19XX, shown on contractors' certificates of project completion and comparing the result to the number in an identified chart of performance statistics. In addition, SSAE no. 4 requires a written assertion from management as a condition of engagement performance. SAS no. 75 does not because assertions are considered to be embodied in the elements, accounts or items of a financial statement if the basis of accounting is clearly evident. WHAT SAS 75 COVERS SAS no. 75 defines an engagement to apply agreed-upon procedures as one in which a client engages an accountant to report findings based on specific procedures performed on the specified elements, accounts or items of a financial statement, defined in SAS no. 75 as accounting information that is part of but significantly less than a financial statement. The information may be directly identified in the statement or it may be derived from analysis, aggregation, summarization or mathematical computation. An example is the amounts included in the caption "property and equipment," identified in a statement of assets, liabilities and capital, as of a certain date, presented on an income tax basis. WHAT'S IN SSAE 4 SSAE no. 4 says agreed-upon procedures are to be performed on the subject matter of an assertion. It defines an assertion as any declaration, or set of related declarations taken as a whole, by a party responsible for it. The subject matter of an assertion is any attribute, or subset of attributes, referred to or contained in an assertion. Examples of written assertions by management are, "All investment securities owned by ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. company during 19XX were traded on one or more of the markets specified in the company's investment policy" and "the documentation of employee evaluations included in personnel files as of June 30, 19XX, is dated within the time frame set forth in ABC's personnel policy." SAS 75 MD SSAE 4 Both pronouncements give detailed guidance on topics such as agreement on and sufficiency of procedures, engagement letters and representation letters and the practitioner's responsibility for knowledge of matters outside the agreed-upon procedures. They also provide detailed reporting guidance, including illustrative reports. Guidance on combined reporting--when a practitioner is engaged to perform agreed-upon procedures as part of or in addition to another form of service, for example, a financial statement review or compilation--also is included in both. Negative assurance. SAS no. 75 and SSAE no. 4 prohibit practitioners from expressing negative assurance in agreed-upon procedures reports, a type of reporting that the predecessor standards permitted. Prohibited language for an accountant might include, "Nothing came to my attention that caused me to believe that the assertion was not fairly stated in accordance with (established or stated) criteria." The ASB reason for the prohibition is because such language could cause users to conclude the practitioner is communicating assurance that goes beyond the findings in his or her report. The ASB also believes negative assurance should be reserved for review level engagements. Internal auditors Internal auditor An employee of a company who analyzes the company's accounting records to that the company is following and complying with all regulations. . Both SAS no. 75 and SSAE no. 4 say internal auditors or other personnel may prepare schedules, accumulate data or provide other information for a practitioner's use in performing agreed-upon procedures. However, a practitioner must perform all of the agreed-upon procedures enumerated This term is often used in law as equivalent to mentioned specifically, designated, or expressly named or granted; as in speaking of enumerated governmental powers, items of property, or articles in a tariff schedule. or referred to in his or her report. The standards give examples of appropriate and inappropriate use of internal auditors. For example, a practitioner may agree to perform procedures on information documented in internal auditors' working papers working papers pl.n. Legal documents certifying the right to employment of a minor or alien. Noun 1. working papers , such as repeating all or some of the procedures the auditors had performed. However, it is inappropriate for a practitioner to take responsibility for all or part of any procedures performed by internal auditors by reporting those findings as the practitioner's own. OTHER CHANGES In addition to superseding superseding taking over a case of a patient under treatment by another veterinarian. In general terms this is poor professional etiquette unless the other veterinarian has been consulted and agrees to the change. SAS no. 35, SAS no. 75 amends AMENDS. A satisfaction, given by a wrong doer to the party injured for a wrong committed. 1 Lilly's Reg. 81. 2. By statute 24 Geo. II. c. 44, in England, and by similar statutes in some of the United States, justices of the peace, upon being notified of an paragraph 1 of SAS no. 74, Compliance Auditing Considerations in Audits of Governmental Entities and Recipients of Governmental Financial Assistance to allow practitioners, to consider guidance in SAS no. 75 or SSAE no. 4 when engaged to perform an agreed-upon procedures engagement for which the objective is to report in accordance with SAS no. 74. SSAE no. 4 supersedes and amends a number of sections in the attestation standards The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. . A. LOUISE WILLIAMSON, CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. , is a technical manager in the AICPA AICPA See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). auditing standards division. Ms. Williamson is an employee of the American Institute of CPAs and her views, as expressed in this article, do not necessarily reflect the views of the AICPA. Official positions are determined through certain specific committee procedures, due process and deliberation. RELATED ARTICLE: A new AICPA self-study course, Attestation Engagements, covers agreed-upon procedures engagement. Authors: Ray Whittington, CPA, PhD, and Kenneth C. Garrett, CPA Field of study: Accounting and auditing Course level: Basic Recommended CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) Communications equipment that resides on the customer's premises. CPE - Customer Premises Equipment credits: 8 hours Course format: Text Price: $119 plus shipping and handling Product number: 737025JA The course can be ordered by calling the AICPA order department, (800) 862-4272 (select submenu An additional list of options within a single menu selection. There can be many levels of submenus. A submenu can have a submenu, which can have its submenu and so on. However, there is a practical limit as the more levels that have to be reached, the more confusing the interface. #1) Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. EST P.M. also p.m. or p.m. abbr. post meridiem Usage Note: By definition, 12 a.m. . |
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