As businesses continue to become more complex, the need for accurate financial reporting and compliance to federal regulations

is paramount. To protect the interest of shareholders in public traded companies and ensure that the correct accounting methods and recognition practices are done properly, there are several services provided by accounting professionals. The three main services that are offered are audit, attestation, and assurance. The role of auditing financial statements is for the auditor to provide an opinion on the financial statements and their accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Assurance services are an independent service conducted to improve the quality of information for decision makers. This review certifies the correctness of a specific item being reviewed by a CPA. An example would be the valuation of financial instruments or review of contracts. Attestation services are a subset of assurance services in which the CPA issues a report about the reliability of the claims made by the client. An example of an attestation service would be a report of the effectiveness of an entitys internal controls on its financial reporting. This differs from auditing and assurance because it is an assessment of processes compared to reporting and validation of information.