AICPA Considers Aligning U.S. Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services with International Standards

The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC) has issued an exposure draft of a Proposed Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS) Materiality in a Review of Financial Statements, Adverse Conclusions, and Special Purpose Frameworks to amend AR-C sections 60, 70, 80, and 90 in AICPA Professional Standards.

Interested parties are urged to submit their feedback by September 20, 2019. (More information, including the Explanatory Memorandum, may be found here.)

“SSARSs are widely used by practitioners in the United States and these proposed amendments align our standards with those used globally,” said Robert Dohrer, CPA, CGMA, AICPA Chief Auditor.

The proposed SSARS further converges AR-C section 90, Review of Financial Statements, with International Standard for Review Engagements 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements. The ARSC believes it is important for the SSARSs literature to be as closely converged with ISRE 2400 (Revised) as possible to facilitate an accountant’s ability to perform and report on engagements and mitigate confusion regarding the level of assurance obtained in accordance with either set of standards.

In addition, even though there are significant differences between an audit engagement and an engagement performed in accordance with SSARSs, certain concepts, such as materiality, are consistent regardless of the level of services performed on the financial statements.

This exposure draft proposes to better align those concepts in the SSARSs.