[Opinion] A Practitioner’s Playbook under ICAI’s Guidance Note and the 2025 Handbook

Anand Agrawal & Pritesh Dudani – [2026] 184 taxmann.com 133 (Article)

On a busy day in a CA firm, the most dangerous document left in the office is often not the audit report. It’s the hurriedly signed one-page “certificate”:

• A turnover certificate rushed out for a tender.
• A net worth certificate as per the requirements of various authorities.
• An end-use certificate and a no-dues certificate are demanded “urgently” by bankers/lenders.
• A GST compliance certificate as per the requirements of the indirect tax law

Many such certificates are drafted by staff, signed late in the evening, and forgotten the next morning. There is no engagement letter, no checklist, no management representation letter and sometimes no clear understanding of whether we are giving reasonable or limited assurance. A year later, if the bidder is blacklisted, the loan goes bad, or a regulator investigates misuse of funds, that one-page certificate becomes the central document. Behind it, there is often no work paper trail at all.

This is exactly the risk that Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (‘ICAI’) has tried to address through the “Guidance Note on Reports and Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016) (‘Guidance Note’)” and the “Handbook on Certificates by Chartered Accountants – Comprehensive Checklist & Formats” issued in October 2025 by the Centre for Audit Quality (‘Handbook’). The Guidance Note treats certificates as assurance engagements, not casual attestations, and the Handbook converts that principle into checklists, illustrative formats and tools that firms can actually use. Together with the UDIN framework and peer review expectations, they are reshaping what it means to “just sign a certificate”.

This article attempts to convert that framework into a practical playbook for practitioners.

1. Certificates as “Instruments of Trust”

The Foreword to the Handbook describes certificates issued by Chartered Accountants as “instruments of trust” guiding the decisions of regulators, financial institutions, investors and other stakeholders. They are no longer seen merely as attestations of factual accuracy or compliance; they directly influence important economic and regulatory decisions.

The Handbook notes that Chartered Accountants are increasingly approached to issue certificates for a wide array of purposes, ranging from compliance with statutory regulations to supporting submissions to banks, government authorities and other stakeholders. Examples include net worth certificates, turnover certificates, fund utilisation certificates, working capital certificates, income/earnings certificates, stock or inventory valuation certificates and no statutory dues certificates. These certificates play a critical role in regulatory filings, tender submissions, banking processes and governmental clearances and are often tailored to the specific needs of the intended user and purpose.

The Preface emphasises that each certificate, regardless of its complexity, demands a high standard of professional judgment, independence and ethical responsibility, and that the act of issuing a certificate should never be seen as a routine clerical task.

2. The Four Pillar Framework Around Certificates

From a practitioner’s perspective, the current regulatory and professional framework around certificates essentially rests on four pillars:

2.1 Guidance Note on Reports and Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016)

This provides the conceptual framework for engagements that require members to issue reports or certificates other than those issued in audits or reviews of historical financial information.

2.2 Handbook on Certificates by Chartered Accountants – Comprehensive Checklist & Formats (October 2025)

This Handbook explicitly “draws upon the principles laid down” in the Guidance Note and offers a structured checklist, FAQs and illustrative certificate formats to guide members in identifying, preparing and issuing certificates with due professional care.

2.3 ICAI Checklist Utility (Annexure I)

This is an Excel based tool and Annexure which contains an Index of certificates divided into three sections. Section A on applicability of various standards and guidance, Section B with a procedural checklist, and Section C with a completion checklist and documentation list.

2.4 UDIN Framework and FAQs (Annexure II)

The UDIN system, mandated since February 2019 for all certificates where financial information is certified as true and fair/true and correct, provides traceability and authenticity and is supported by detailed FAQs.

Taken together, these four elements redefine certificate engagements as structured assurance assignments that are expected to withstand regulatory scrutiny and peer review.

3. What is a “Certificate” for ICAI Purposes?

Chapter 1 of the Handbook defines a certificate as a formal written document that affirms the truth, accuracy or authenticity of a specific fact, condition or status, based on verification or evidence. Typical examples include net worth certificates, turnover certificates and similar attestations.

The Handbook notes that Chartered Accountants are increasingly called upon to issue certificates that serve as formal confirmations of financial data, compliance with statutory requirements and fulfilment of specific conditions laid down by various authorities. These certificates often play a critical role in regulatory filings, tenders, banking and governmental processes, and unlike audit reports, they are frequently tailored to the unique needs of the user and purpose.

At the same time, the Handbook reminds members that the Institute has issued the Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016), which provides guidance on engagements requiring members to issue reports or certificates other than those in audits or reviews of historical financial information. The Guidance Note does not prescribe a standardised format for all assurance engagements, but it identifies basic elements that an assurance report is expected to include.

The Handbook’s Chapter 3 clarifies that the procedures and formats in the Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes do not apply to:

• audits or reviews of historical financial statements, where Standards on Auditing (SAs) and Standards on Review Engagements (SREs) apply;
• agreed upon procedures engagements regarding financial information, where SRS 4400 applies;
• compilation engagements, where SRS 4410 applies; and
• assurance engagements covered by subject specific Standards on Assurance Engagements such as SAE 3400, 3402 and 3420.

For other special purpose reports or certificates, the practitioner is expected to follow Guidance Note. Section A of the checklist utility is specifically designed to help practitioners assess whether an engagement falls under SAs, SREs, SRSs, SAEs or the Guidance Note and then proceed accordingly.

Click Here To Read The Full Article