Glossary of Accounting Terms

• Accountant - Although all CPAs have a background in accounting, not all accountants are CPAs. CPAs are licensed to practice accountancy under state law. Only licensed accountants can perform attest services such as an audit of financial statements. The SEC also requires that the signatory of the independent auditors report in an SEC Filing be "dually registered" with the appropriate state licensing authority.

• Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) - Designation in business valuation awarded by the AICPA to those who have met prescribed requirements and passed the examination.

• Adverse Opinion - Auditor's opinion which states that financial statements do not fairly present the financial position, results of operations, or cash flows in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

• Agreed Upon Procedures - Specific procedures agreed to by a CPA, a client and (usually) a specified third party. The report states what was done and what was found. Additionally, the use of the report is restricted to only those parties who agreed to the procedures.

• American Accounting Association (AAA) - National professional association for those involved in accounting education in higher education.

• Analytical Review Procedures - Substantive tests of financial information made by a study and comparison of relationships among data.

• Assurance Services - Services which improve the quality of information, or its context, for decision-makers.

• Attestation Standards (AT) - The attestation standards enable practitioners to examine or review non-financial statement information and to perform and report on the tesults of those engagements in accordance with professional standards.

• Audit - Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines an "audit" as a "methodical examination and review" or more specifically, "the final report of an examination of books of account by auditors."

  The Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 require the financial statements of all publicly held companies in the United States to be audited every year by an independent auditor. The SEC subsequetly mandated that the annual report of every publicly held corporation contain a Report of Independent Public Accountants. The standard audit report states that the goal of the audit is "to obtain reasonalbe assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement" and that the audit was performed "in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards."

  The federal government subsequently expanded mandatory audit requirements to most pension plans, local and state governments, and certain not-for-profit organizations. Audits by CPAs also have become part of many real estate and other commercial agreements, as well as many bank loan requirements.

• Audit Committee - Audit Committees of boards of directors have become a well-recognized and important element of corporate governance. Ideally, these committees, should consist of individuals who are independent of the management of the entity and have a strong degree of financial literacy. Audit committees typically recommend the CPA or firm to be hired as independent auditors and have oversight responsibilities for both the internal audit function and the independent audit. The SEC requires publicly held companies to include reports by their audit committee in proxy statements. Auditing standards require certain communications between the audit firm and the audit committee.

• Audit Risk - The risk that an auditor will unknowingly fail to appropriately modify his/her opinion on financial statements that are materially misstated.

• Audit Risk Alerts - Annual updates alerting auditors to current economic, regulatory, and professional developments in various industries. These include Compilation and Review Alerts, and approximately 18 industry-specific alerts.

• Audit Sampling - The application of an audit procedure to less than 100 percent of the items within an account balance or class of transactions for the purpose of evaluating some characteristic of the balance or class.

• Auditing Standards Board (ASB) - Board authorized by the AICPA to promulgate auditing and attest standards, procedures, and implementation guidance for AICPA members performing such services. It is authorized to make public statements, without clearance from Council or the Board of Directors, on matters related to its area of practice.

• Beta Alpha Psi - The premier professional accounting and business information fraternity, which recognizes academic excellence and complements members formal education by providing for interaction among students, faculty and professionals.

• Big Four - Traditionally, the four largest CPA firms in the wrold. They are PricewaterhouseCoopers; Deloitte & Touche LLP; Ernst & Young LLP; and KPMG.

• Business Valuation - Refers to the discipline involving a process by which a supportable opinion is derived about the worth of a business or individual assets or liabilities.

• CPA - Certified Public Accountant - A credential conferred by a state or similar governmental jurisdiction that authorized the holder to practice as a Certified Public Accountant in that jurisdiction. In order to become a CPA, all states require that an individual meet some combination of educational, experience, and ethical requirements and pass the Uniform CPA Examination.

• Center for Investment Advisory Services (CIAS) - A center developed by the AICPA to provide tools and helps to train our members and enable them to provide investment advisory services to their clients.

• Center for Public Company Audit Firms (CPCAF) - A center developed by the AICPA to provide support to member firms that audit or are interested in auditing public companies with education, communication, representation and other means.

• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) - A credential specifically geared toward experienced information security managers and those who have information security management responsibilities. CISM is designed to provide executive management with assurance that those earning the designation have the required knowledge and ability to provide effective security management and consulting. It is business-oriented and focuses on information risk management while addressing management, design and technical security issues at a conceptual level. While its central focus is security management, all those in the IS profession with security experience will certainly find value in CISM.

• Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) - A professional credential offered by Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) certifying expertise in information system auditing. The CISA is earned through a combination of experience and successful completion of an exam, offered annually in 11 languages.

• Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) - Designation in information technology awarded by the AICPA to CPAs who have met experience, life long learning and examination requirements. CITPs are involved in information strategic planning, implementation, management, and business strategies for information systems.

• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) - An international certification awarded by the Institute of Internal Auditors (11A) that reflects competence in the principles and practices if internal auditing.

• Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - Title bestowed by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) on persons meeting certain basic requirements, principally an examination covering economic theory, financial management, cost accounting, etc.

• Certified Public Accountant - A credential conferred by a state or similar governmental jurisdiction that authorized the holder to practice as a certified public accountant in that jurisdiction.

• Compilation - Information presented in the form of financial statement that is the representation of management without the accountant undertaking to express any assurance on the statements.

• Consulting Services (CS) - Consulting Services provided by the CPA firms in addition to the traditional audit, accounting, and tax service (e.g. systems work, production planning). the AICPA CS Team provides educational and technical guidance to firms and private sector employees who offer consulting services to clients or employers.

• Contingencies - The notes to financial statements describe certain uncertainties as to possible gain or loss, called "contingencies," that will ultimately be resolved when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. These might include, for example, uncertainties as to the outcome of pending or threatened litigation, or guarantees of the indebtedness of others that could have an effect on the financial position or performance of the organization.

• Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) - The five-member federal government body responsible for setting cost accounting standards for all government contractors.

• Customer Relationship Manager - A business management system that involves all aspects of interaction an organization has with its customer or member, including all marketing, communications, sales and service related activities. The overall objective of CRM effort is to develop a 360 degree view of a member/customer.

• Disclaimer of Opinion - Auditor's statement in which he (she) does not express an opinion on financial statements.

• Disclosure - The material matters relating to the form, arrangement, and content of financial statements that are "disclosed" during the presentation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or if applicable with OCBOA.

• ElderCare Services - A host of financial and non-financial services targeted at older adults and their family members to help those older adults maintain their independence for as long as possible and to provide peace of mind for their family members.

• Emerging Issues Task Force - The EITF was designed to promulgate implementation guidance within the framework of existing authoritative literature to reduce diversity in practice on a timely basis. The EITF was designed to minimize the need for the FASB to spend time and effort addressing narrow implementation, application, or other emerging issues that can be analyzed within existing GAAP.

• Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center (EBP AQC) - A firm membership Center with the objective of enhancing the quality of audits of employee Benefit plans subject to ERISA.

• Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) - A federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. ERISA requires plans to provide participants with plan information including important information about plan features and funding; and requires plans to prepare financial reports and have annual audits generally for plans with more than 100 participants.

• Enrolled Agent - A tax practitioner who by passing an examination given by the U.S. Treasury Department, can represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - A business management system that integrates all facets of the business to the related financial reporting functionality. Software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP in business activities such a planning, manufacturing, sales, marketing, inventory control, order tracking, and finance. ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company to create a single software program that runs off one database.

• Evidential Matter - Audit materials supporting the financial statements consisting of the underlying accounting data and all corroborating information available to the auditor.

• Exposure Draft (ED) - Document issued by the AICPA, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), or other authority to invite public comment before a final accounting, auditng, or administrative standard, policy or procedure pronouncement is issued.

• Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) - Formerly code named XFRML, XBRL is a freely available electronic language for financial reporting. It is an XML-based framework that provides the financial community a standards-based method to prepare, publish in a variety of formats, reliably extract and automatically exchange financial statements of publicly held companies and the information they contain. XBRL is not about establishing new accounting standards, but enhancing the usability of the ones that we have through the digital language of business. XBRL will not require addition disclosure from companies to outside audiences.

• Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) - Group authorized by the accounting profession to establish generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) applicable to federal government entities.

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) - Independent agency that provides insurance coverage for deposits in both banks (through the Bank Insurance Fund) and savings institutions (through the Savings Association Insurance Fund) and conducts periodic examinations of state-chartered banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System.

• Federal Register (F.R.) - The principal document containing administrative agency law, including proposed and final regulations. It is issued daily.

• Federal Reserve System - Board of Governors (Fed or FRB) - Regulates state member banks, bank holding companies and financial services companies.

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - Regulates the profession with regard to privacy for tax perparers, tax planners, and financial planners.

• Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) - Independent, private-sector organization whose trustees appoint the members, provide funds, and exercise general oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), and their respective advisory councils.

• Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) - Official promulgations by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and, if not superseded, part of generally accepted accounting principles.

• Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) - The primary function of FASAC is to advise the Board on issues related to projects on the Board's agenda, possible new agenda items, project priorities, procedural matters that may require the attention of the FASB, and the other matters requested by the chairman of the FASB. FASAC meeting provide the Board with an opportunity to obtain and discuss the views of a very diverse group of individuals from varied business and professional backgrounds.

• Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) - Independent, private, non-government group which is authorized by the accounting profession to establish generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S.

• Financial Executives International (FEI) - Professional association for financial executives whose objective is to maintain a position of national leadership on issues affecting corporate financial management, and to provide those services that will best meet the professional needs of its members.

• Financial Planning Association (FPA) - The membership organization for the financial planning community, created when the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (CFP) and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) unified on January 1, 2000. Members include individuals and companies who have contributed to building the financial planning profession and all those who champion the financial planning process.

• Financial Statements - The presentation of financial data, including accompanying notes derived from accounting records and intended to communicate an entity's economic resources or obligations at a point in time, or the changes therin for a period of time, in accordance with a comprehensive basis of accounting.

• Financial Statements - Financial statements present information about an entity's economic resources and obligations at a point in time, the results of its activities during a particular period, and its source and uses of cash during that period. They focus on information that is useful in making investment and lending decisions. Most financial statements are prepared using a set of common ground rules, which have been developed over a period of many years, and are called generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) - Uniform minimum standards of and guidelines to financial accounting and reporting. Corrently, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory are authorized to establish these principles.

• Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) - Standards governing the conduct of external audits by CPAs, as determined by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the AICPA.

• Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (GSTT) - This is a tax on estate tax transfers, generally though trusts that are intended to avoid estate taxes, There is a $1 million exemption, but the taxpayer has to elect to allocate it to a transfer, and this is hard to do when it is uncertain what the future value of the transfer will be. The result has been liability for practitioners for failing to elect to allocate some of the exemption to the transfer. This is a major issue currently for the big four, which have millions in potential liability.

• Government Audit Quality Center (GAQC) - A firm membership Center with objective of enhancing the quality of audits of entities subject to GAGAS.

• Government Auditing Standards, a,k.a. Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) - Commonly referred to as the "Yellow Book," it contains standards for audits of government organizations, programs, activities, and fuctions, and of governmental funds received by contractors, nonprofit organizations, and other non-government organizations. Revisions are issued as required by the Comptroller General of the U.S.

• Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) - Private, nonprofit organization which has actively supported the advancement of governmental accounting, auditing, and financial reporting since 1906.

• Governmental Accounting Standards (GAS) - Official promulgations by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and, if not superseded, part of generally accepted accounting priciples applicable to state and local governmental entities for both governmental-type and business-type activities.

• Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) - Group authorized by the accounting profession to establish generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) applicable to state and local governmental entities.

• Independence Standards Board (ISB) - Independent standard setter formed by the AICPA and the SEC to revise, interpret, and maintain the independence standards that apply to public company auditors.

• Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) - An international organization that aspires to global leadership in IT governamce, control and assurance by providing it constituents education, a technical/managerial journal, professional certification, conferences, standards and original research.

• Inspector General (IG) - Individuals charged with conducting and supervision audits and investigations relating to the programs and operations of their departments or agencies, and reporting on these semiannually to Congress and the chief executive of their department or agency. Such offices were established in most federal cabinet-level departments and larger agencies by the Inspector General Act of 1978.

• Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) - An international organization that provides certification, education, research, and technological guidance for internal audit practitioners.

• Institute of Management Accountants (formerly NAA) - National membership organization of CPAs and others involved in accounting, financial and data processing work for industry, commerce and government. Issues the designation Certified Management Accountant.

• Interactive Data Extraction and Analysis (IDEA) - EDP audit tool that allows the transfer and analysis of information from other computers.

• Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) - Authoritative instrument of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for announcing official rulings and procedures of the IRS, and for publishing Treasury decisions, executive orders, tax conventions, legislation, court decisions, and other items of general interest. It is published weekly.

• International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) - An organization whose members represent 153 accounting bodies in 112 countries. The group is dedicated to bringing about the harmonization of international accounting standards.

• International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) - Trade association for individual financial planners and product sponsors.

• International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) - Trade association ofr individual financial planners and product sponsors.

• International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) - Global organization for the accountancy profession representing 158 accounting organizations in 118 countries. Encourages high-quality practices by the worlds' accountants. Sponsors World Congress of Accountants every five years.

• Issuer - The term "issuer" means an issuer (as defined in section 3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c). The securities of which are registered under section 12 of that Act (15 U.S.C.78), or that is required to file reports under section 15(d) (15 U.S.C 78o (d), or that files or has filed a registration statement that has not yet become effective under the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77a et seq.) and that it has not withdrawn.

• Joint Ethics Enforcement Program (JEEP) - Program of cooperation between the AICPA and the state CPA socities in the enforcement of the Code of Professional Conduct.

• Joint Trial Board (JTB) - AICPA Board, which provides for uniform enforcement of professional standards by adjudicating disciplinary charges against AICPA and state society members. It comprises of at least 36 members.

• Knowledge Management (KM) - The process of connecting people to people and people to information to create competitive advantage.

• LEXIS - Computer-assisted legal research service which offers access to several other services, including the National Accounting Automated Research System (NAARS) and NEXIS.

• Limited Liability Company (LLC) - A form of organization that may be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes and that has limited liability protection for the owners at the state level. The entitly may be subject to state franchise tax as a corporation.

• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) - A form of organization in which the individual partners are protected from the liabilities of the other partners. These entities are considered partnerships for both federal and state tax purposes.

• Litigation Services (LS) - Any professional guidance non-lawyers provide to lawyers in the litigation process. Such assistance may include the quantification of damages, analysis of business facts and the provision of expert testimony.

• MD&A Section in Annual Reports - The Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) section of a company's quarterly or annual report is required by the SEC for all public companies, MD&A disclosures should include in plain English, management's identification and evaluation of all information, including the potential effects of known trends, commitments, events and uncertainties, that is important to providing investors and others with an accurate understanding of the company's current and prospective financial position and operating results. The three required elements in MD&A also is required to include a discussion of operations, liquidity, and capital resources. MD&A also is required to include a discussion of instances where optional accounting treatments were available and the reason for the treatment chosen.

• Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) - AICPA team that assists small firms and sole proprietors in improving the management and administration of their practices.

• NEXIS - Full-text research and information service with a database of more than 160 U.S. and overseas general, business, and news information sources.

• National Accounting Automated Research System (NAARS) - Computerized database for researching annual reports of corporations and governmental entities, and authoritative and semiauthoritative accounting and auditing promulgation's of the AICPA, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), etc.

• National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) - National organization representing the 54 state licensing boards/agencies which regulate the CPA profession in all states and four U.S. territories.

• National Council of Governmental Accounting (NCGA) - Private sector standard-setting body for governmental accounting, auditing, and financial reporting from 1968 until 1984, when the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) was established.

• National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) - Regulates all credit unions and insures credit union deposits up to $100,000.

• Negative Assurance - An accountant's statement which says that as a result of specified procedures, nothing came to his (her) attention that caused him (her) to believe that specified matters did not meet a specific standard.

• Nonissuer - Entitles not subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 or the rules of the SEC.

• Off-Site Peer Review - A review of selected financial statements and accountant's compilation or review reports sufficient to provide a reviewer with a reasonable basis for expressing limited assurance that the reports do not depart in a material respect from professional standards. Available to firms that do not perform audits and are members of the Private Companies Practice sections (PCPS) of the AICPA Division of CPA Firms, or to firms enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program. For PCPS firms, includes a reveiw of the firm's compliance with the membership requirements of the section.

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) - Federal goverment agency responsible for assisting the President in preparing the budget and formulating the fiscal program of the U.S. government, among other things.

• Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) - A bureau of the Department of the Treasury that charters federal savings institutions and serves as primary regulator for federal and state chartered savings institutions that belong to the Savings Institutions Insurance Fund (SIIF).

• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) - A bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department designed to safeguard bank operations and the public interest through its general supervision over the operations of national banks.

• On-Site Peer Review - A review that examines a firm's system of quality control over its accounting and auditing practice, and includes a review of selected accounting and auditing engagements. The purpose of an on-site peer review is to express an opinion on whether a firm met the objectives of quality control standards issued by the AICPA and whether these objectives were being complied with during the period under review. An on-site peer review is required for all reviews of SEC Practice Section (SECPS) member firms and PCPS member firms. Firms enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program are required to have on-site peer reviews if they perform audits.

• Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting (OCBOA) - A basis of accounting, other than GAAP, that an entity uses to report its assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses. Examples of OCBOA include income tax basis and cash accounting.

• Peer Review - An evaluation of a CPA firms' system of quality control policies and procedures to ensure that a firm adheres to professional standards, in all material respects or a review of the firms' accounting reports and financial statements to determine conformity with professional standards, applicable to those engagements in all material respects. See engagement, report and system review (all AICPA Peer review Program peer review) and peer reviews under the Center for Public Company Audit Firms Peer Review Program in this Glossary for further definitions. Peer reviews are performed in accordance with standards established by the AICPA Peer Review Board for firms enrolled in the AICPA peer Review Program, and by the Center for Public Company Audit Firms Peer review Committee for firms enrolled in the Center for Public Company Audit Firms Peer Review Program.

• Personal Financial Specialists (PFS) - Designation in personal financial planning awarded by AICPA to those who have met practice requirements and passed an examination.

• Political Action Committee (PAC) - Group of individuals with common interests and political goals that is organized to provide information and financial support to candidates for elective offices. For the Institute, this is called the AICPA PAC.

• Practice Bulletin - Information communicating the views of the Accounting Standards Executive Committee on certain narrow accounting issues.

• Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) - The PCAOB is a private-sector, non-profit corporation, created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, to oversee the auditors of public companies in order to protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, fair and independent audit reports.

• Public Entity - Any entity that: (a) trades securities in a public market either on a stock exchange or in the over-the-counter market; (b) makes a filing with a regulatory agency in preparation for the sale of any classes of its securities in a public market (c) is a subsidiary corporate joint venture, or other entity controlled by either (a) or (b).

• Qualified Opinion - Auditor's opinion which states that, except for the effects of the matter to which a qualification relates, the financial statements fairly present financial position, results of operations, cash flows in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) - Congressional statute enacted in 1970 to deal with organized crime's infiltration of legitimate business. Some states also have RICO Statutes.

• Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) - According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and individual registred under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities.

• Revenue Procedure - A published official statement of the IRS regarding a matter of federal tax procedure, published by the National Office of the IRS.

• Revenue Ruling - A published official interpretation of the tax law by the National Office of the IRS. Rulings are often based on replies to request for rulings by taxpayers.

• Review - Performing inquiry and analytical procedures that provide the accountant with a reasonable basis for expressing limited assurance that there are no material modifications that should be made to the financial statements for them to be in confomity with GAAP or, if applicable, with OCBOA.

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - Agency of the federal government that regulates the public trading of securities. The SEC has the authority to establish accounting and auditing regulations, but defers to the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Auditing Standards Board.

• Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) - SPE is used to refer to an entity such as a corporation or partnership created to conduct a specific transaction or business activity. the vast majority of SPEs are used for legitimate purposes. For example, mortgage and credit companies use them to sell loans and other obligations to private investors, multinational corporations use them in tax planning stategies, and consumer product companies use them to allow third parties (the SPEs) to act as their consumer finance company.

  All of the assets and liabilities of an SPE (except for certain qualified entities typically used for the securitization of assets such as loans), that are legally separate from the reporting organization:

  * must be included among the assets and liabilities of the reporting entity, if the reporting entity has a controlling financial interest in that legally separate entity.

  This is refereed to as "consolidation." In addition, the beneficiary of the transaction or business activity entered into by an SPE may be required to consolidate the SPE:

  * even in the absence of a controlling financial interest in the SPE (indeed, even if the reporting entity has no ownership interest in the SPE) if, certain other conditions are met.

  The "3% rule" that has been referred to in the press is an element of a publicly stated SEC staff view concerning when one of those other conditions would be met.

• Statement of Position (SOP) - Statements which provide guidance on practice or industry financial accounting or reporting problems until the Financial Accounting Standards Board or Governmental Accounting Standards Board provides standards in those areas. They are also intended to influence the establishment of such standards, and to update, revise, or clarify audit and accounting guides or provide freestanding guidance.

• Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS) - Official promulgations by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) and, if not superseded, part of generally accepted accounting principles applicable to federal govenmental entities.

• Statements of Tax Policy - Statements which present the thinking of the AICPA's Taxation Team on questions of broad tax policy and are designed to aid in the development of federal tax legislation.

• Statements on Auditing Standards (SAS) - Statements issued by the auditing Standards Board to provide CPAs with guidance regarding the application of Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS).

• Statements on Standards for Accountants' Services on Prospective Financial Informatin (SSASPFI) - Statements issued by the Auditing Standards Board to provide guidance to accountants concerning performance and reporting for engagements to examine, compile, or apply agreed-upon procedures to prospective financial statements.

• Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS) - Statemets issued by the Accounting and Review Services Committee to provide CPAs with guidance regarding reporting on the unaudited financial statements or other unaudited financial information of nonpublic entities.

• Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagement (SSAE) - Statements issued by the Auditing Standards Board, Accounting and Review Services Committee, or the Management Advisory Services Executive Committee to provide guidance to CPAs engaged to perform attest services.

• Statements on Standards for Consulting Services (SSCS) - Statements which provides behavioral standards for the conduct of consulting services. The SSCS includes the General Standards found in Rule 201 of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct plus three additional standards found in Rule 203, including Client interest, Understanding with the Client and Communication with the Client.

• Statements on Standards for Tax Services (SSTS) - Tax behavioral standards that are binding under the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct.

• Technical Bulletin (TB) - Information issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board which provides timely guidance on certain financial accounting and reporting problems.

• Transaction Trail - Chains of evidence provided through coding, cross reference, and documentation connecting accounting balances and other summary results with original transactions and calculations.

• Unqualified Opinion - An auditor's opinion which states that the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, financial position, results of operations, cash flows in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.

• WebTrust - Services to provide assurance on online businesses. These services result in examination level attestation reports on whether an entity meets applicable WebTrust Principles and Criteria. The Principles and Criteria address matters such as privacy, security, availability, confidentiality, consumer redress for complaints, and business practices.