Assurance & Attestation Engagements

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) defines assurance services as “…. independent professional services that improve the quality of information, or its context, for decision makers.” These services can involve financial or nonfinancial information. The information may be internal or external to the user and might involve discrete data or entire systems. 

The professionals at Norman, Bass & Parnell, CPAs, PLLC have extensive experience in assurance and attestation engagements from a compilation of a small non-profit organization to an audit of a highly regulated, multi-million-dollar corporation. Please contact Norman, Bass & Parnell, CPAs, PLLC today to discuss your entity’s engagement needs. 

ASSURANCE SERVICES OVER HISTORICAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

The most common assurance services provided by public accounting firms have been assurance over historical financial statements in the form of (1) audits, (2) reviews and (3) compilations. Norman, Bass & Parnell, CPAs, PLLC provides all 3 types of engagements to various sized for-profit entities and non-profit organizations. 

AUDITS OF NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS 

Audits of historical financial statements are designed to provide financial statement users with a high-level of assurance over the fair presentation of the financial statements. The objective of an audit is to provide a reasonable basis for expressing an opinion as to whether the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (or other comprehensive basis of accounting).      

REVIEWS 

In a review of historical financial statements, our professional personnel perform inquiries and analytical procedures on the financial statement data to provide a reasonable basis for expressing limited assurance on the financial statements. 

COMPILATIONS 

In a compilation, our professional personnel present in the form of financial statements information that is the representation of management, without undertaking to express any assurance on the financial statements. 

ASSURANCE SERVICES OVER INFORMATION OTHER THAN HISTORICAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

ATTESTATION ENGAGEMENTS 

Broadly, an attestation is one in which a practitioner, by issuing a report, provides some level of assurance on information that is the responsibility of another party. In practice, an attestation engagement within accounting means an engagement or service that provides assurance on information other than historical financial statements, such as a Personal Financial Statement. Your Norman, Bass & Parnell, CPAs, PLLC professional will work with you to meet any attestation engagement needs you may have.