Assurance Services: A business member’s perspective

Audit and Assurance Faculty webcast

Date: December 2006

Speaker: John Selwood ACA

Venue: Chartered Accountants’ Hall

Assurance Service

Webcast: Business member's perspective webcast (running time: 15 minutes)

Target audience: Audit exempt companies and other stakeholders.

Brief overview: All limited companies must file a set of annual accounts at Companies House. These accounts must be prepared in accordance with company law and accounting standards. Company directors are responsible for the preparation of these accounts.
If your company is exempt from audit, there are three main services that chartered accountants can provide on the accounts. The options are:

• Accounts Compilation

• ICAEW Assurance Service

• Voluntary Statutory Audit

For each type of service, a chartered accountant will provide a report that indicates the type of work performed by them. Each adds a different level of credibility to your annual accounts.

What to do is your decision and depends on what you want your chartered accountant to do for you and what users of your accounts are looking for.

This webcast explains the ICAEW Assurance Service, which sits between accounts compilation service and voluntary statutory audit.

Additional resources

Practical guide (PDF 57kb/4 pages): Chartered accountant services

Issues paper (PDF 204kb/23 pages): Beyond the threshold

Research paper (PDF 133kb/18 pages): Company views on the ICAEW Assurance Service

Interim Technical Release AAF 03/06 (PDF 119kb/28 pages) The ICAEW Assurance Service on Unaudited Financial Statements

Q&A

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