15 March 2010
i have a client who is accountant. he produce before me a trial balance certified by the proprietor. then he ask me to certify profit and loss account and balance sheet. then i match the data of trial balance with financial statements. and write a comment "i have just compere trail balance data with financial statements only, so all the responsibility of trial balance data is of proprietor only." and certify the financial statements so how much responsibility of mine as per my comment, as i have just compare the data and written in the comment accordingly?
16 March 2010
As you have certified the balance sheet and profit and loss, the full responsibility will be of yours. It does not matter that the proprietor has certified the trial balance and you just compared the values as mentioned in trial balance with profit and loss and balance sheet. The users of financial statements will going to depend on the values as mentioned in the profit and loss and balance sheet relying on you that you have seen and after that you certified these values.
Its my suggestion to you that before certifying any balance sheet, first check the authenticity of values as mentioned in trial balance.
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