CA certificate format: what every certificate must carry under ICAI guidance, and where ICAI drafts one

The short answer

There is no single CA certificate format. The ICAI Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016) does not require a standardised format; it identifies the basic elements every certificate is to include. A certificate states what is certified and against which criteria, who is responsible for what, what the practitioner did, and an opinion or a conclusion, under a title, a named addressee and a signature. The ICAI Handbook's completion checklist also asks for a restriction on use and a UDIN, mandatory for certificates since 1 February 2019.

Drafted formats exist for some purposes only: twelve in Annexure III of the ICAI Handbook on Certificates by Chartered Accountants (October 2025), twelve in the ICAI Guide to CA Certificates in GST (December 2024), and four illustrations in the Guidance Note's own Appendix 2. The Handbook calls its formats illustrative; the GST Guide calls its own recommendatory. Any other certificate is written on the Guidance Note's elements, or on a form a law or regulator prescribes.

What every certificate must carry

The basic elements paragraph 80 of the Guidance Note requires, with what the Handbook's completion checklist (Annexure I, Section C) adds.

Where a law or regulation prescribes the wording, paragraphs 29 to 32 still ask for these elements; if the authority rejects them, the practitioner keeps evidence of the rejection and may issue on the prescribed format.

Reasonable or limited assurance

Every certificate under the Guidance Note gives one of two levels of assurance, settled at the start from the procedures the practitioner can perform. The Guidance Note says the word certificate, as laws and contracts use it, normally goes with reasonable assurance, but the practitioner may conclude that only limited assurance can be given. It does not allow a move from reasonable to limited because the evidence for reasonable assurance could not be obtained.

Reasonable assurance ends on an opinion in the positive form: the statement is properly prepared, in all material respects. Limited assurance ends on a conclusion in the negative form: nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe it is not. A limited assurance certificate also says its procedures are less in extent, so the assurance is substantially lower, and sets out what was done. The visa net worth format, Annexure III(ii), gives limited assurance and lists nine procedures; the unaudited tender format, III(x), lists six, among them cross-checking turnover with GST and income tax returns.

Three subjects are drafted twice, with and without audited financial statements: property, plant and equipment (Annexure III(iii) and III(iv)), grant utilisation (III(vii) and III(viii)) and tender turnover and net worth (III(ix) and III(x)). The first of each pair gives an opinion; the second gives limited assurance and lists its procedures.

Restriction on use and UDIN

All twelve Handbook formats carry a restriction on use, and the Handbook's checklist asks for one in every certificate. It names who asked and the authority the certificate is for, bars any other use or user, and accepts no duty of care to another reader without the practitioner's written consent. It rests on paragraph 80(f) of the Guidance Note, which requires a purpose alert and permits a restriction; the absence of one does not by itself indicate that a legal responsibility is owed to anyone else.

The UDIN has been mandatory for certificates since 1 February 2019, by a decision of the ICAI Council at its 379th meeting, and each certificate needs its own, even where several are signed the same day. It is generated on signing, or within 60 days of signing at the latest, sooner where the authority asks, and can be revoked only within 48 hours of being generated. The portal asks for the certificate type from a list of 36, which the Handbook's Annexure II reproduces, choosing Others with a description where none fits, and for two financial figures, entered as zero where the certificate has none. Banks and authorities verify the number printed on that same portal.

Where ICAI drafts the format, and where it does not

Certificates a CA is often asked for, and the format ICAI drafts for each, as OptiCertificate's catalogue cites it.

Where a law or regulator prescribes the form, such as Form FC-4 under the foreign contribution rules or Form 3 under a State's RERA rules, the certificate is issued on that form.

Turnover and GST refund certificates

A turnover certificate has a drafted format only for a tender, in the Handbook and in the Guidance Note's Illustration 1. Annexure III(ix) and III(x) certify annual turnover and net worth together for three financial years, net worth computed by the method the tender clause sets. A turnover certificate for a cash credit or overdraft limit, a business loan, trade finance or MSME status is named in the Handbook's table of what banks ask for, and not drafted. It is written on the Guidance Note's elements: the bank as addressee, the period, the source of the figure, audited financial statements or the books, and the level of assurance that source supports. The UDIN portal's list has one turnover entry, 34, Turnover Certificate.

A GST refund certificate is one the law itself requires. Rule 89(2)(m) of the CGST Rules asks for a certificate in Annexure 2 of Form GST RFD-01, from a chartered accountant or a cost accountant, that the incidence of the tax claimed as refund has not been passed on, where the refund claimed exceeds two lakh rupees. At or below that amount the applicant files a declaration under rule 89(2)(l) instead, and refunds on exports and of unutilised input tax credit, among other cases in section 54(8), need neither. Chapter 9 of the GST Guide drafts it: reasonable assurance on the incidence of tax alone, not on eligibility, the output tax rate or the admissibility of input tax credit. On the UDIN portal it is entry 21, Certification for claim of refund under GST.

OptiCertificate's catalogue, family by family

The 35 purposes OptiCertificate offers, in its 10 families, and the ICAI publication each purpose's wording rests on.

Only the 9 Handbook purposes carry the badge "ICAI format". The 12 GST purposes carry "Based on ICAI GST Guide" and keep what each chapter requires in OptiCertificate's own wording; the 14 others carry "Built on ICAI Guidance Note".

What OptiCertificate does

OptiCertificate's catalogue is 35 purposes in 10 families: 9 reproduce the Handbook's Annexure III word for word, 12 are built on the GST Guide, and 14 are built on the Guidance Note in OptiCertificate's own wording. Choose what the certificate is for, and the right wizard opens; each purpose card names its source and its Handbook citation. The bank turnover certificate, for which the Handbook drafts no format, is built on Annexure III(ix)'s turnover structure, at reasonable assurance, including a year taken from the books.

The wizard's last step, Review & Issue, asks for the issuing firm under Select Issuing CA Firm, the UDIN Certificate Type and the UDIN Number. Where the purpose has an Annexure II entry, the type is pre-filled with it, one of the portal's 36: entry 32 for the visa certificate, 34 for the tender, bank and MSME turnover certificates, 21 for the GST refund; where none fits, the field's note points to 36. Others, as the portal asks. The type is recorded with the certificate, not printed on it. The UDIN Number is required and printed as typed; OptiCertificate does not validate it. A GST refund certificate cannot be issued for a refund of ₹ 2,00,000 or less. Submitting the wizard opens the certificate on A4 pages, as it will print, and you preview the exact file before you export.

It does not do the engagement. Agreeing the terms, performing the procedures, examining the evidence and generating the UDIN are the CA's work, and so is the signature.