1.7 Assurance Services

Assurance services are defined as “independent professional services that improve the quality or context of information for decision makers.” CPAs provide several different types of assurance services for clients. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) actively seeks out opportunities for CPAs to improve the quality of information or its context through providing assurance services. Some examples of assurance services provided by CPAs include SysTrust and WebTrust. These two services provide assurance to users of IT systems or websites that the private information they provide to the owner of the system or website is protected. For example, people who shop online want assurance that the credit card information they enter when making the purchase will not be stolen and used by others. While CPAs are not the only individuals who can perform assurance services to improve the quality of information, they are well suited to do so because of the public trust they have gained over the years.

Relationship between Audit, Attest, and Assurance Services

As you might have already gathered, audit, attest, and assurance services are closely related. In fact, an audit is a type of attest service and attest services are a subset of assurance services. Figure 1.1 below graphically illustrates the relationship between audit, attest, and assurance services.