A certified public accountant shall evaluate whether the non-authentication services provided by him to authentication clients are compatible with authentication services. The authentication business carried out by certified public accountants maintains the public interest. If the services provided by certified public accountants are or will be in conflict with their independence in providing forensic services, incompatible work will arise. For example, certified public accountants provide audit clients with evaluation services, internal audit services, IT system services, legal services, preparation of financial statements, management consulting and other services, resulting in self-evaluation threats, which may affect their independence (memory). When undertaking the above services, certified public accountants should be cautious and take preventive measures to minimize the impact, otherwise, they should not accept such services.
(Memory) An accounting firm shall not provide financial statements and audit services for listed companies at the same time. The senior management personnel or employees of an accounting firm shall not serve as directors (including independent directors), managers or other key management positions in authenticating clients. At present, China does not allow accounting firms to provide assets evaluation and audit services for the same listed company, and the provision of other services has not been restricted. However, if accounting firms compile financial statements for listed companies, or senior managers or employees of accounting firms become senior managers who authenticate customers, the threat of self-evaluation and economic interests will be so great that no preventive measures can reduce it to an acceptable level.
Example: Company V requires ABC accounting firm to provide internal control audit report at the same time as issuing audit report. To this end, the two sides signed a separate business agreement.