Standards issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) to provide guidance for practitioners when performing related services engagements that are not assurance engagements. Key points about ISRS:
- Objective: The main objective of ISRS is to establish standards and provide guidance on the practitioner’s professional responsibilities when performing related services engagements and on the form and content of the practitioner’s report.
- Scope: Related services engagements cover a wide range of engagements where practitioners apply their professional expertise, but no assurance is expressed. These engagements include:
- Agreed-upon procedures engagements (ISRS 4400)
- Compilation engagements (ISRS 4410)
- Agreed-upon procedures: ISRS 4400, Engagements to Perform Agreed-Upon Procedures Regarding Financial Information, provides guidance when a practitioner performs agreed-upon procedures on financial information and reports on factual findings. The practitioner does not express any assurance in this type of engagement.
- Compilation engagements: ISRS 4410 (Revised), Compilation Engagements, deals with engagements where a practitioner assists management in preparing and presenting financial information, without obtaining or providing any assurance on the information.
- Responsibility: In related services engagements, the responsibility for the subject matter and the resulting report lies with the engaging party, not the practitioner.
- Relationship with other standards: While ISRSs are separate from International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and International Standards on Assurance Engagements (ISAEs), they are designed to be consistent with the principles and concepts in these standards, adapted as necessary for the specific nature of related services engagements.
ISRSs provide guidance for practitioners to perform related services engagements consistently and effectively, ensuring that the engaging party and other intended users understand the nature and scope of the engagement and the practitioner’s findings or report.