Meta-information provides additional
information about an item and places it
in context, making it fit-for-purpose.
Such context also is essential to be able
to perform an attestation engagement
on the information. In the aforementioned
example, an examination engagement
could be performed on whether the
inventory is fairly stated in conformity with
generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP). In this case, GAAP provides
suitable criteria for evaluating the inventory
information. Therefore, suitable criteria
used in an attestation engagement are part
of the meta-information associated with
the subject matter.