Service organizations of all types are under pressure from their customers to perform at a high level and in a secure manner. Many of them may be expected, or contractually obligated, to verify the effectiveness of their controls over activities that affect their user organization’s financial statements. Based on the AICPA’s Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, an independent attest examination can help assure user organizations of the competence of those controls.

If you are a service organization finding yourself grappling with this issue, Contineo can help refine processes and improve controls with our SAS 70 services:

• Type I - A report that provides an opinion on an organization’s description of controls at a point in time, and whether the controls were suitably designed to achieve specified control objectives.
• Type II – Building on the Type I audit, this includes testing of controls over a period of not less than six months and an opinion on the effectiveness of those controls.