You are working for a public accounting firm in Melbourne. One of your friends is working for Bayswater, a publicly listed company that is required to prepare its half-yearly (i.e. six month) financial statements. Bayswater has just prepared the half-yearly financial statement for the period ending 31 December 2018. As per regulations set out in the Corporations Act 2001, Bayswater needs to get its half-yearly financial statements either audited or reviewed by a public accounting firm. Your friend has approached you with an aim to get some advice about this issue and to know more about the similarities and differences between a review and an audit service. He requests your firm to provide a letter addressing Bayswater’s Board of Directors (BOD) regarding this issue. 

Required: 

Write a letter to the BOD of Bayswater advising them of the similarities and differences between a review of financial statement and an audit of financial statement. Your discussion should focus on: the similarities and differences in level of assurance, audit procedures, benchmark or criteria, types of opinion, applicable standards, audit fees etc.