This chapter described assurance services, focusing on those that are governed by Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements. To summarize:

• Assurance services are defined as professional services that improve the quality of information, or its context, for decision makers.

• The vast majority of currently provided assurance services are attestation services that are performed in accordance with Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements. These services include examinations, reviews, and agreed-upon procedures engagements.Anexamination and a reviewinvolve providing assurance about the correspondence of subject matter with suitable criteria. An agreed-upon procedures engagement involves performing procedures and issuing a report of the findings.

• CPAs may be engaged to examine a nonpublic entity's internal control over financial reporting based on suitable control criteria, such as those contained in Internal Control-Integrated Framework, developed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of theTreadway Commission (COSO). However, practitioners are prohibited from providing a review service for controls over financial reporting.

• CPAs may perform examinations, compilations, or agreed-upon procedures on prospective financial statements. Reviews of prospective financial statements are prohibited. Prospective financial statements include forecasts that reflect expected financial results and projections that reflect expected financial results given one or more hypothetical assumptions.

• Practitioners may examine or review Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A). MD&A consists of a narrative explanation of financial results that must be included in annual and quarterly filings with the SEC. The practitioners' objective in an examination is to provide assurance on whether (1) the presentation includes all required elements, (2) any historical amounts have been accurately derived from the entity's financial statements, and (3) the underlying information, determinations, estimates, and assumptions provide a reasonable basis for the disclosures included.

• Trust Services provide assurance on one or more of the following Trust Principles: (a) Security, (b) Availability, (c) Processing integrity, (d ) Online privacy, and (e) Confidentiality. Currently two services have been developed-WebTrust, which provides assurance on electronic commerce systems, and SysTrust, which provides assurance on other systems.

• Two other services that are being developed by the profession are CPA Performance View and CPA Risk Advisory Services. While CPA Performance View helps clients track success using a variety of financial and nonfinancial measures, CPA Risk Advisory Services help organizations to manage risk. Other assurance services being developed by the profession include health care performance measurement and continuous auditing.

Describe the differences among assurance services, attestation services, and audits.

Explain the applicability of the attestation standards.

Describe the nature of attestation engagements, including examinations, reviews, and agreed-upon procedures engagements.

Describe the fundamental attributes of attestation services for internal control over financial reporting.

Describe the fundamental attributes of attestation services for prospective financial statements.

Describe the fundamental attributes of attestation services for management discussion and analysis.

Describe the nature of Trust Services.

Describe the nature of ElderCare/PrimePlus services.

Describe the nature of CPA Performance View.

Describe the nature of Risk Advisory Services.

List several developing assurance services.