Attestation In auditing explained

The term attestation signifies agreeing to the accuracy of a set of data as a result of an expected knowledge of the subject matter. Attestation is an aspect of assurance services. It provides a means to verify if certain information prepared internally can be relied on.

1. What's attestation?

In auditing and assurance services, attestation is an assurance engagement to carry out a task on certain data, procedures, policies, and so on. It can be done by a chartered accountant, an external auditor, or an accounting consultancy firm.

Usually, an entity's management may request that a professional accountant attest to the accuracy and reliability of a subject matter that was prepared internally or via outsourcing. As mentioned, the report provided by the chartered accountant enhances the subject matter and assures the management that it can be relied on.

2. Some subject matter of an attestation

Below, we state certain areas where attestation can be provided. These include the review of a company's risk management, an entity's policies, procedures of internal control, budgeting, and forecasting. Since the criteria used in the aforementioned are based on the experience of the professional (except for procedures of internal control), the chartered accountant can only provide a moderate level of assurance on the subject matter.

However, for procedures of internal control, there are available criteria that can be relied on. Such as the COSO framework and International Standards on Auditing (ISA).

3. Differences between attestation, auditing, and assurance services

Chartered accountants can carry out several assurance services except external audits. This is because a license from an institution such as ICAN is needed to carry out an audit. 

There are differences between attestation, auditing, and assurance services. Assurance services include attestation and auditing. Therefore, we can say that assurance service is broader in scope compared to others. Auditing involves the examination of financial statements to provide a report as to whether the financial statement gives a true and fair view of the information provided in the statements. 

Attestation, on the other hand, can be done by a chartered accountant. It can be an auditor or a consultant. However, it doesn't state the true and fair view of the subject matter; rather, it is a confirmation that the subject matter can be accurate and can be relied on. More so, auditing can only be done by an auditor, but attestation is done by external auditors and consultants.