Preparing and Reviewing Client-Prepared Financial Statements and General Attest Engagements

Description

The ultimate objective of a financial statement audit is to issue the independent auditor's report. Reviews and preparations are different. This course discusses the review and preparation process, introduces key elements of financial statements, and provides best practices for auditors who either prepare or review the client's financial statements. Most CPA firms perform some level of compilation and review engagements, and some perform engagements under attestation standards. This course provides a deep dive into the most frequently missed issues in compilations and reviews engagements. We will also focus on attestation engagements and the various types of engagements a CPA can perform.

Highlights

  • Objective of financial reporting
  • Interrelationships of financial statements and disclosures
  • Accounting changes
  • Financial statement preparation and review process
  • Best practices for financial statement preparation and review
  • Frequently missed issues in compilation and review engagements as noted by peer reviewers
  • Understand how to comply with AR-C 100 on International Standards and AR-C 120, Compilations of Pro forma Information
  • Introduction to attestation standards (AT)
  • Performing attestation examination engagements
  • Performing attestation review engagements
  • Performing agreed-upon procedures

Objectives

  • Explain the key elements and variations of the auditor's report
  • Understand the appropriate treatment for accounting changes and error corrections
  • Discuss the basic financial statements, their key elements, and required disclosures
  • Understand the Codification layout and be able to perform research on presentation and disclosure issues that arise
  • Use a framework to prepare or review client prepared financial statements
  • Identify best practices for financial statement preparation or review of client prepared financial statements
  • Recall SSARS basics
  • Understand advanced SSARS reporting issues, such as complying with international standards and preparing compilations of pro forma information
  • Explain how to avoid peer review deficiencies in compilation and review engagements
  • Identify the distinction between different levels of engagements performed in accordance with the attestation standards (examinations, reviews, and agreed-upon procedures)

Designed For

Accountants who perform compilations, reviews, and other attestation engagements

Leaders

Renee Rampulla

Renee Rampulla, CPA, CGMA, has over twenty years of professional experience. She consults, writes, and lectures on technical accounting and auditing issues. Rampulla has extensive experience in the auditing of public and privately held entities ranging from the manufacturing and service sectors, to financial services. Previously she was a partner in a regional accounting firm in the northeast in charge of the firm's accounting and auditing practice and their quality control group.

Rampulla is the founder of Rampulla Advisory Services, LLC. Her clients include nationally recognized professional organizations, accounting firms, companies, publishers and others. By devoting several years of her career at both regional and Big Four accounting firms Rampulla accumulated a wealth of technical and practical knowledge. In addition, while working for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), she performed professional ethics investigations; worked closely with senior technical committees; presented technical guidance before standard setters; and authored and updated several AICPA publications.

For several years Rampulla has been an adjunct lecturer at a university in New York City. She has taught numerous undergraduate accounting and auditing courses. Rampulla holds a BBA in Public Accounting from Bernard M. Baruch College. She is a member of the AICPA, the NYSSCPA, the New Jersey State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA), the Institute of Management Accountants, the American Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the National Conference of Certified Public Accountants Practitioners.

Rampulla serves as a committee member of the NYSSCPA's Professional Ethics Committee and the Financial Accounting Standards Committee. She is the 2012 -- 2014 Leader of the NJSCPA's Accounting and Auditing Standards Interest Group and previously served as the 2011-2012 Vice-Leader. She has also served as co-chair of the NJSCPA Accounting Standards.