SSAE 3000 (Revised) and its Conforming Amendments

Singapore Standard on Assurance Engagements (SSAE) 3000 (Revised) 

SSAE 3000 (Revised), which deals with Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information, is based on the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised) Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). 

The standard has been revised largely to improve the clarity of existing requirements in light of experiences with the extant SSAE 3000 and the growing use of the standard internationally, and to adopt the IAASB’s clarity drafting conventions. 

The key revisions made to the SSAE 3000 (Revised) include: 

a)        Making SSAE 3000 (Revised) a stand-alone standard without reference to other auditing standards; 

b)        Aligning the structure of the standard to that of the clarified Singapore Standards on Auditing (SSAs), such as the inclusion of  a section on “Application and Other Explanatory Material”; 

c)        Explaining that assurance engagement is classified on two dimensions – (i) either a reasonable assurance engagement or limited assurance engagement; and (ii) either an attestation engagement or a direct engagement. Although the standard is written in the context of attestation engagements only, it may be applied to direct engagements; 

d)        Clarifying the scope and work effort for limited assurance engagements through inclusion of tables which allow practitioners to more clearly see how a limited assurance engagement differs from a reasonable assurance engagement in practice; 

e)        Providing more guidance for limited assurance engagements which includes gaining a better understanding of risk and response. It also requires practitioners to provide more details in the assurance report on the actual work performed; 

f)         Providing greater clarity on the characteristics and responsibilities of an engagement partner for the overall quality of the engagement; 

g)        Increasing the minimum content elements in the assurance report to include a statement that the firm of which the practitioner is a member applies Singapore Standard on Quality Control (SSQC) 1, Quality Control for Firms that Perform Audits and Reviews of Financial Statements, and Other Assurance and Related Services Engagements, or equivalent, and a statement that the practitioner complies with the independence and other ethical requirements of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Public Accountants and Accounting Entities (ACRA Code or equivalent); and 

h)        Providing new application and other explanatory materials illustrating how aspects of its requirements may be applied, including how the nature and extent of procedures may vary between reasonable assurance and limited assurance engagements. 

In summary, most of the changes introduced help to improve the clarity of existing requirements rather than imposing new requirements. The features of SSAE 3000 (Revised) that will affect the audit practice are as follows: 

a)         Practitioners are now required to include a statement of compliance with the ACRA Code and SSQC 1 in the assurance report;

b)         Practitioners are now required to provide more details on the actual work performed, such as the nature, timing and extent of procedures performed, in the assurance report, especially for limited assurance engagements;

c)         Under the new signing convention in Singapore effective 1 January 2015, only public accountants are permitted to sign off SSAE 3000 assurance reports as some form of assurance is expressed in the reports for engagements performed under SSAEs.

Conforming amendments

Conforming amendments have also been made to the following standards:

a)         Singapore Framework for Assurance Engagements;
b)         SSAE 3402, Assurance Reports on Controls at a Service Organisation;
c)         SSAE 3410, Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements; and
d)         SSAE 3420, Assurance Engagements to Report on the Pro Forma Financial Information Included in a Prospectus. 

SSAE 3000 (Revised) and its conforming amendments are effective for assurance reports dated on or after 15 December 2015.