From the Inside Out.
"AUP is the most honest assurance product: we test exactly what you ask us to test, find exactly what is there, and report it — without spin, without opinion, without scope creep."
— Finerio Assurance Practice
Testing Exactly What You Need, Nothing More, Nothing Less
Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) is an engagement in which an independent accountant performs specific, pre-agreed factual procedures on financial or non-financial information — and reports only the findings of those procedures. No opinion or conclusion is expressed. The parties agree the procedures in advance, and the accountant simply reports what they found.
AUP is governed by ISRS 4400 (International Standard on Related Services 4400). It is one of the most versatile tools in assurance practice — used for due diligence verification, covenant compliance testing, regulatory spot checks, grant reporting, acquisition condition verification, and any situation where a specific set of facts needs to be independently confirmed.
Finerio designs and executes custom AUP engagements for any purpose — from a one-day verification of a single account balance to a multi-week investigation of a complete business process. Procedures, sample sizes, and reporting format are all agreed with you in advance.
AUP — the most flexible assurance tool available
Depending on purpose, AUP engagements go by many names across finance, transactions, and regulatory contexts.
What We Deliver
AUP engagements designed for every purpose — from transaction verification to regulatory compliance testing.
Key Activities in Every AUP Engagement
From scoping through to factual findings report — how Finerio designs, executes, and reports an AUP engagement.
Procedure Design & Agreement
We work with you and any intended users to define precisely which procedures to perform, on which data, covering which period — documented in a formal procedures letter agreed before work begins.
Scope Documentation
Agreed procedures are documented in full — specifying the information to be tested, sample size or population, criteria for exception identification, and the format of findings to be reported.
Evidence Gathering
We request and review the source documents, system reports, and records needed to perform each procedure — maintaining a complete evidence file for every test.
Procedure Execution
We execute each agreed procedure — testing, comparing, recalculating, tracing, or confirming as specified — documenting the outcome of every test with supporting evidence.
Exception Identification
Where a procedure reveals a discrepancy or error, we document it precisely — describing what was found, the source of the discrepancy, and the magnitude of the difference.
Findings Report Preparation
We prepare the ISRS 4400-compliant findings report — listing each procedure performed and the factual findings (including exceptions) resulting from each. No opinion is expressed; only facts are reported.
Management Accuracy Review
The draft report is shared with management for factual accuracy review — ensuring findings are correctly described before finalisation.
Final Report Issuance
The final findings report is issued to the agreed intended users — in the format specified in the engagement agreement, accompanied by a summary of procedures performed.
Questions we hear from clients every week.
Clear, plain-language answers to the most common questions about AUP engagements.
Use AUP when you need specific facts independently confirmed rather than an overall opinion on financial statements. Common examples: verifying a specific account balance for a lender; confirming compliance with an acquisition price adjustment; testing payroll calculations for a regulator; verifying grant expenditure for a government authority. AUP is the most targeted and efficient assurance tool — faster than an audit, less expensive, and precisely scoped to what you actually need confirmed.
An audit opinion is a positive or qualified conclusion on whether entire financial statements fairly present the company's financial position. AUP findings are factual observations — what the accountant found when performing each specified procedure. No conclusion is drawn about whether overall financials are correct. The value of AUP is its precision and transparency: users know exactly what was tested, how, and what was found — and draw their own conclusions from those facts.
Under ISRS 4400, AUP reports are restricted to the parties who agreed the procedures — typically the client and any third party who participated in defining the scope (a bank, acquisition counterparty, or regulator). The report should not be distributed to parties who did not agree the procedures, as they might misinterpret the findings. Where multiple parties need to use the report, all should be identified as intended users at the outset.
Timeline depends entirely on scope. A single-account verification can be completed in 1 to 3 days. A multi-area AUP covering several financial statement sections typically takes 1 to 3 weeks. A comprehensive acquisition AUP might take 3 to 6 weeks. Because procedures are agreed in advance and scope is fixed, AUP engagements rarely have timeline surprises — unlike audits, where additional issues can unexpectedly extend fieldwork.
Yes — and it is specifically designed for this purpose in many regulatory contexts. UAE regulators including the SCA, CBUAE, and DFSA periodically require companies to commission AUP engagements as part of regulatory reviews, licence renewal processes, or spot compliance checks. The regulator specifies the procedures to be performed; the accountant performs them and reports findings in the required format. We have structured AUP engagements to meet the specific requirements of multiple UAE regulatory authorities.
Need something specifically tested?
Tell us what needs to be independently verified — we'll design a precise, cost-effective AUP engagement that gives you exactly the confirmation you need. 📍