Effective December 14, 2017, Companies that have a review engagement performed on their annual or interim financial statements will require these to be performed under the new assurance standard, or CSRE 2400.
As a client, how does this impact me?
Communication with Rise CPA
The new standard requires a greater level of communication, a better understanding of your business and systems, and more comprehensive work done through a risk based approach to testing. This will involve concentrating efforts on the areas more susceptible to misstatement due to factors such as complexity and bias. Communication will also require signing a new engagement letter better outlining the client responsibilities and those of the accountant.
Review engagement report
Visually, the most significant change will be to the review engagement report included typically at the start of your financial statements. While there are several changes, including potential inclusion of other significant matters within the report, the largest change relates to better outlining of the responsibilities of management and those of the accountant.
Click Here to download a PDF of the new Review Engagement Report.
Ensure Your Accountants Understand These Changes
For users of the financial statements (bankers, lenders, inactive shareholders etc.) the changes to the review engagement report will be the primary difference noted.
For those learning about this for the first time, use this as an opportunity to reach out to your clients and to Rise CPA to discuss differences in their upcoming financials. We can answer any questions that you have, discuss new disclosure in the financial statements, and any significant issues particularly around other matters. Ensure your clients are working with accountants that understand these changes and the implications to their reporting.
If you have any questions about these changes or any other matters relating to your file, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 604-936-4377. For those wishing to learn more, we’d be more than happy to present these changes in greater depth at any time.
