Comps, Reviews & Preparations: How the Accounting Profession Got it Right 2024

Overview

In the beginning, CPA practitioners offered two types of attest services: audits and unaudited engagements. Auditors had plenty of authoritative guidance for choosing their auditing procedures and issuing reports but minimal guidance on performing and reporting on their unaudited engagements. In a landmark litigation in the 1960s, a CPA practitioner failed to detect an obvious fraud, ultimately leading to the AICPA creating well-defined, positive standards that birthed the Compilation and Review services in 1978.