Negative Assurance

What Is Negative Assurance?

Negative assurance is a determination by an auditor that a particular set of facts is believed to be accurate since no contrary evidence has been found to dispute them. Negative assurance is normally used by auditors in situations where it is not possible to positively confirm the accuracy of financial reports. The goal of negative assurance is to confirm that no evidence of fraud has been found or that any legal accounting practices were found to be violated.

Understanding Negative Assurance

Negative assurance usually arises in the absence of positive assurance. A positive assurance of accuracy is considered stronger and means that the auditor has done sufficient work to state that a company's financial statements provide an accurate picture of its true financial condition based on proofs.

Positive assurance is required for certain audited financial reports released by public companies. Since fully auditing a public company in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) is a large undertaking, a positive assurance is normally issued only when legally required.

Negative assurance is most often issued when an accountant is asked to review certified financial statements prepared by another accountant. In this case, since another accountant has already certified the accuracy of the statements, a negative assurance is often seen as sufficient to confirm that the statements are free of material misstatements. Negative assurance opinions are also issued when an accountant is asked to review statements associated with the issuance of securities.

To issue a negative assurance opinion, the accountant must gather audit evidence directly and may not rely on indirect evidence, that is, evidence provided by a third party. The procedures used in the preparation of a negative assurance opinion are not as stringent as those required for a positive assurance opinion.

It is important to note that negative assurance is not stating that any illegal activity did not occur, it is stating that the auditor could not find any instances of illegal activity.

Example of Negative Assurance

Company ABC hires an auditing firm to go over its financials from the fiscal year 2019. The auditor assigned to the case looks over all the accounting documents, which include general ledgers, journals, and other various financial documents. The auditor does not check every specific entry but does a comb through of all of the relevant information. The auditor then interviews employees and management on specific topics. After this review, the auditor does not find any instances of fraud or any accounting violations. The auditor then issues a negative assurance that confirms no issues, errors, or misstatements were found.