Biggest changes in SSARSs since 1978 proposed to better serve small businesses, their CPAs and financial statement users.

To address the needs and expectations of the business community and to respond to concerns of small business owners, users of small business financial statements and CPAs who serve smaller entities, the Accounting and Review Services Committee has proposed a revision of Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services that would permit an accountant to issue a review report on financial statements when the accountant's independence is impaired due to the accountant performing nonattest services that were designed to improve the quality (reliability) of the client's financial information.

In its work, the ARSC was supported by the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section which helped form a task force to consider the issues and commissioned research into commercial bankers' perceptions of a CPA's integrity, expertise, independence, objectivity and reliability and how that affects judgments about risks. Click here to read PCPS's "reliability research paper."

In addition, the proposed standard would also a) harmonize review...