Overview
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Identifying the applicable standards
7 mins
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Comfort letters - Sample bank request
41 mins
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What CPAs can't provide
62 mins
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Statements on standards of attestation engagements
73 mins
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SSAE 21, Direct examination engagements
95 mins
Course Description
In the past few years, attestation services have grown in popularity as the need for an independent party to assure topics other than financial statements has become required by laws, regulators, or service clients.
An attestation service or engagement is the process of engaging a CPA to provide assurance or attestation audits over services. These services can be used to gain assurance over the following subject matters: agreed-upon procedures, prospective financial statements, compliance, Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), and service organizations.
As attestation services have grown, the AICPA has had to create more formalized standards and in April 2016, released the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 18, Attestation Standards: Clarification and Recodification. The goal of this project was to make standards clearer and easier to apply within engagements.
Attestation standards often take a back seat to audit and SSARS standards. Many practitioners don’t fully understand them and often don’t realize when they apply. The goal of attestation standards is to provide guidance, set boundaries around a growing service line, define a measure of quality, and outline the objectives that should be reached when performing attestation engagements.
In this CPE Auditing webinar, we will discuss the application of the statements of standards for attestation engagements (SSAEs) and when they apply.
Following are the major topics covered in this CPE course:
- SSAEs 18-22
- The clarified standards
- Responsibilities in agreed-upon procedures engagements
- Materiality
- Assertion-based and direct examination engagements
- Review engagements
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Learning Objectives
- To discuss the concepts in attestation engagements.
- To analyze when attestation standards apply.
- To inspect the application of attestation standards.
- To analyze the differences between review and examination engagements.
- To discuss the updated procedures for agreed-upon-procedures engagement.
Recommended For
- This Online CPE Webinar is recommended for CPAs, CMAs, CIAs, QIALs, IAPs, CRMAs, CGFMs, Internal Auditors, External Auditors, Staff Auditors, Government Auditors, Compliance Officers, CFOs, and other professionals interested in understanding everything about Attestation Standards.
Who Should Attend?
- Accounting and audit managers/practitioners
- Auditors
- Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- CPA (Industry)
- CPA - Mid Size Firm
- CPA - Small Firm
- Forensic Auditor
- Fraud & Forensic Auditor
- Young CPA