Review Engagement

A review engagement is a certification engagement in which a CPA provides limited assurance on your financial statements. The CPA performs analytical procedures, comparisons, and inquiries of management to assess whether the financial statements are plausible. It is an intermediate level between a compilation and an audit.

A review provides limited assurance — the CPA concludes that nothing has come to their attention that causes them to believe the financial statements are not in accordance with the applicable framework. An audit provides reasonable assurance — the CPA performs detailed testing, external confirmations, and physical verifications. An audit is more thorough, longer, and more expensive.

A review is often required by financial institutions for financing applications, by investors for due diligence, or by shareholder agreements. If you don't need the level of assurance of an audit but a compilation isn't sufficient for your stakeholders, a review is the right choice.

A review engagement provides limited assurance (also called 'negative assurance'). The CPA states that nothing has come to their attention that causes them to believe the financial statements contain material misstatements. This is a lower level than the reasonable assurance provided by an audit, but higher than a compilation which provides no assurance.