Audit, Assurance and Related Services
At Powell Jones LLP, we provide a variety of financial statement preparation services to meet your individual reporting requirements. We continually monitor changes in accounting and assurance principles to ensure that all aspects of our reporting comply with the current standards.
Audit Engagements
The purpose of an audit is to provide independent assurance that management has presented accurate financial information. An audit can be required by a variety of stakeholders such as banks, regulatory bodies, suppliers or owners. Audits offer the highest level of assurance and include an in-depth examination of account balances and transactions. An audit may also identify areas where management is able to improve controls or processes.
Typical Audit Engagement Reports include:
- Financial Statements prepared in accordance with Canadian Accounting Standards
- Financial Statements prepared with a special purpose framework
- Compliance with agreements
- A single Financial Statement or a specific element of a Financial Statement
Other Assurance and Related Services
Review Engagements
Another common form of assurance on financial information is the review engagement. A review provides a lower degree of assurance than an audit and primarily consists of inquiry and analytical procedures related to the information provided. It is the most typical form of assurance report prepared for small and medium privately-held companies.
Typical review engagement reports include:
- Financial Statements prepared in accordance with Canadian Accounting Standards
- Compliance with agreements
Notice to Reader Engagements
A notice to reader consists of compiling financial statements based on information provided by management. It is not an assurance engagement. The accountant performs no testing and does not express an opinion or provide assurance on the financial information. For many small businesses a notice to reader is sufficient to meet management’s needs.
Specified Auditing Procedures
In this type of engagement, selected procedures are performed on financial information at the request of management. The engagement report will set out the procedures that were performed and state the factual results of those procedures including any errors or exceptions. The procedures do not constitute an audit and no opinion or assurance is provided. These types of reports are common for entities that have externally imposed requirements such as funding agreements for wages.