Standard on Related Services (SRS) 4400, “Engagements to Perform Agreed-upon Procedures regarding Financial Information” should be read in the context of the “Preface to the Standards on Quality Control, Auditing, Review, Other Assurance and Related Services”1, which sets out the authority of the Engagement Standards.
1. We are pleased to accept the instruction to act as auditor for your company and are writing to confirm the terms of our appointment. 2. The purpose of this letter, together with the attached terms and conditions, is to set out our terms for carrying out the work and to clarify our respective responsibilities.
An auditor's engagement letter most likely would include: management's acknowledgment of its responsibility for maintaining effective internal control. the auditor's preliminary assessment of the risk factors relating to misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting.
An engagement letter is a written agreement between a company and a client. It describes the business relationship that is to be entered into between these two parties. The letter will contain details about the scope of the agreement, its costs, and the terms.
Your designated audit firm will prepare the specific terms of engagement using the appropriate AICPA-issued engagement letter template. It should be noted that there are many terms for audit engagements that are deemed required by the AICPA and therefore unable to be negotiated.
The content of an engagement letter often includes important details such as the scope of services to be provided, fees or billing arrangements, confidentiality clauses, dispute resolution mechanisms, and any other relevant terms agreed upon by both parties.
Engagement letters set expectations for both the client and the party providing the service, it specifies the exact service or task to be performed by the firm and the information to be provided by the client. All engagement letters also generally contain various deadlines for each sub-task.