Audit Assertions & SOC Reports: How Are They Related?

Valuation assertion tests whether the inventory figures in the client’s account are correct and the evaluation method used by the client in determining the cost of various items for inventory valuation is appropriate. A service organization can greatly reduce the number of resources expended to meet user auditors’ requests by having a Type II SOC 1 audit performed. Some of these include reviewing accounts and reconciliation of payables to supplier statements. This financial assertion states that the different components of a financial statement, such as assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses, have all been properly classified within the statement. One of the ways to test this assertion is to redo all the calculations. For example, auditors may use a re-performance audit procedure in the test of controls on the bank reconciliation procedure that the client already has done.

These are assertions are characteristics that need to be tested in order to ensure that financial records and disclosures are correct and appropriately mentioned. When financial statements are being prepared, there are certain elements that need to be borne in mind by the accountants. The preparation itself requires certain claims that need to make pertaining to the preparation of financial statements. For example, auditors may perform recalculation on the depreciation of fixed assets to test their valuation assertion. For example, the auditor may perform an observation procedure by witnessing the counting of inventories by the client. This observation procedure is to test the existence of the client’s inventories counting procedures, not the accuracy of the client’s inventory.

List of Audit Assertions

For the last thirty-five years, he has primarily audited governments, nonprofits, and small businesses. He is the author of The Little Book of Local Government Fraud Prevention, The Why and How of Auditing, Audit Risk Assessment Made Easy, and Preparation of Financial Statements & Compilation Engagements. Charles consults with other CPA firms, assisting them with auditing and accounting issues. In other words, they might use assertions different from those listed above, or the auditor could list each assertion separately. Regardless, auditors need to make sure they address all possible areas of misstatement. Some auditors refer to auditing by assertions as an assertions audit.

Fraud risks and subjective estimates can be (and usually are) assessed at the upper end of the spectrum of inherent risk. When a significant risk is present, the auditor should perform procedures beyond his or her normal approach. As we previously said, when the client’s risk increases, the level of testing increases. For an auditor, relevant assertions are those where a risk of material misstatement is reasonably possible. So, magnitude (is the risk related to a material amount?) and likelihood (is it reasonably possible?) are both considered.

Types of Audit You Should Know – Explained

Audit procedures for obtaining audit evidence are usually performed in the audit evidence gathering stage that may include both test of controls and substantive procedures. Also, it is useful to note that the inspection alone will not provide evidence about the rights and obligations. For this audit assertion, auditors may need to inspect the legal documents of the assets. Instead, it focuses on the liabilities disclosed in the balance sheet.

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Transaction Level

There are two main type of assertions which are used in the audit process. They are referred to as transaction level assertions, and account balance assertions. Audit assertions are the implicit (or explicit) claims that are made by the management in order to depict that the financial statements have been prepared keeping in mind the auditing assertions list appropriateness of the audit assertions. Auditors use the valuation assertion to confirm all financial statements are recorded with the proper value. This is important in understanding (for example) a company’s debt profile or ensuring stakeholders have a properly contextualized grasp of readily available assets and cash flow.

• Auditors often assess control risk at high because they don’t plan to test for control effectiveness.
• For account balances, these assertions differ from transactions and events.
• The reference to disclosures being appropriately measured and described means that the figures and explanations are not misstated.
• They are assertions made by the company regarding the existence, completeness, valuation, rights and obligations, and presentation and disclosure of the reported financial information.
• Therefore, with these audit assertions in place, the reliability of financial statements considerably increases.