The most common forms of assurance are as follows:

- Compliance with laws, regulations, and contractual obligations

- Relevance and context of business risk management process

- Effectiveness and efficiency of operations

- Reliability of information and control systems

- Financial statements For each of the following examples, classify the type of assurance that will likely be provided.

a. A company hopes to secure a bank loan.

b. An auditor for a large public accounting firm is preparing plans to audit the sales order/receivables process of a mail-order clothing operation.

c. A company is preparing to "go public" for the first time.

d. A company prepares to bid on government defense contracts for the first time.

e. A union questions the integrity of sales volume statistics presented by corporate management used as the basis for laying off employees.

f. A vice president of operations is charged with improving her division's profits.

g. Congress calls for a review of the IRS's automated "help lines" in response to taxpayers' complaints of incorrect tax advice.

h. A bank is considering loaning money to a firm whose primary source of income is making industrial solvents having manufacturing by-products that are considered toxic.

i. A major airline is losing money on some of its most competitive routes. It believes, however, that it cannot abandon the routes and still maintain its marketing presence.

j. An Internet portal company has a committee designated to identify threats to its long-term viability as a going concern. Part of its mission is to design and implement mechanisms to mitigate such threats.