Professor Elam

Thursday July 24, 2014

CPAs have been cound by the AICPA's Statements on ?Standards for Accouting and Review Services SSARS. That has allowed for three levels of statement preparation, compilation, review, and audits. 

A new standard will take effect December 15, 2015. A CPA will only prepare a compilation if requested. The view is that statement preparation is the responsibility of management. A CPA should be providing assurance. Under the new guidelines if a CPA assists but management does nhot request the compliation wording, then management may distribute the reports without CPA comment. 

Frankly this makes more sense than issuing a statement which provides little or no assuance anyway.