Glossary›Assurance, audit evidence and working papers›Limited assurance
Glossary term
Cluster A · A4
Tier 1 · differentiator
Limited assurance
Definition
Limited assurance is the lower of the two assurance levels. The practitioner performs mainly inquiry and analytical procedures, then expresses a conclusion in the negative: nothing has come to their attention suggesting the information is materially misstated. It is not a statement that the numbers are correct. Australian sustainability reports start here.
On this page
In practice
The negative wording is the whole point and it is routinely misread. A clean limited assurance conclusion says the practitioner did not find a material problem using a reduced set of procedures. It does not say they checked every number. Directors who read it as a clean audit opinion are over-reading it, and readers who dismiss it as worthless are under-reading it.
Under ASSA 5010, the first reporting year for each group carries limited assurance over a defined subset: the governance disclosures, the strategy disclosures covering climate-related risks and opportunities, Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, and any Group 3 statement that there are no material climate-related risks or opportunities. In the second and third reporting years, limited assurance extends to all disclosures in the sustainability report. From the fourth reporting year the engagement becomes reasonable assurance over everything.
What the assurer does with it
In limited assurance the assurer relies heavily on analytical procedures and inquiry, with targeted substantive testing where a risk is identified. They benchmark this year’s emissions against last year, against production volume, against floor area or headcount, and against the corresponding expense line in the financial statements. Unexplained variance is where the substantive testing lands. What they do not do is test every site or vouch every invoice. What surprises entities is that limited assurance still requires a complete, traceable file: the assurer cannot run an analytical procedure on a number they cannot reconstruct.
Commonly confused with
Reasonable assurance, and with “audit” used loosely. The Corporations Act uses “review” for limited assurance and “audit” for reasonable assurance, so an entity in year one is having its sustainability report reviewed, not audited, even though the practitioner must be a registered company auditor.
Timing and relief
Group 1’s first year is the financial year commencing on or after 1 January 2025, Group 2’s from 1 July 2026, Group 3’s from 1 July 2027. Counting four years from each group’s start gives reasonable assurance over the whole report from financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2028 for Group 1, 1 July 2029 for Group 2 and 1 July 2030 for Group 3. The Corporations Act sets a backstop of financial years commencing on or after 1 July 2030 for reasonable assurance over all climate disclosures, which is the same point Group 3 reaches by the phasing.
Sources
1
ASSA 5010 Timeline for Audits and Reviews of Information in Sustainability Reports under the Corporations Act 2001
AUASB
2
ASSA 5000 General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements
AUASB
3
Review status
Review required
Last reviewed
15 September 2026
Editorial pass, unsigned
Reviewer required
Registered company auditor
Next scheduled review
1 July 2030
Part of
Cluster A, Assurance, audit evidence and working papers
47 terms on what an assurance provider tests, what they accept as evidence, and what a preparer has to be able to produce.
Related terms
The level your engagement steps up to in year four
The procedure that does most of the work at this level
The other primary limited assurance procedure
Related questions
What is the difference between limited and reasonable assurance?
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Limited assurance is expressed negatively, that nothing has come to the practitioner’s attention suggesting the information is materially misstated. Reasonable assurance is expressed positively, that the information is fairly presented, and it needs far more testing and costs more. Australia starts with limited assurance and moves to reasonable over time.
Does limited assurance mean they check our numbers?
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Partly. A limited assurance engagement rests mainly on inquiry and analytical procedures, with some testing of source data, rather than a full recalculation of your inventory. The practitioner looks for anything that stands out rather than verifying every number, which is why the conclusion is worded negatively.
How long does a limited assurance engagement take?
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Elapsed time is driven by how fast you answer queries, not by the standard, and the practitioner’s fieldwork is a small part of it. If your working papers are complete before fieldwork starts, the engagement runs to plan. If they are not, it stalls while evidence is assembled.
Other terms in this cluster
Limited assurance