ISAE 3402 History and Timeline
While "SAS 70" has become a well-known acronym representing an in-depth audit of a third-party service organization, the original Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70 is one of many periodic statements issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). These periodic statements generally involve the modification of existing auditing standards or the introduction of new auditing standards. With the recent passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) will also issue auditing standards for public companies on a go-forward basis.
The auditor's consideration of an entity's internal control and the impact a service organization may have on the entity's control environment has long been an area of focus. The following table summarizes some of the Statements relative to internal control, the effect of information technology on a financial statement audit, and service organizations, that have been made since the very first Statement on Auditing Procedure (SAP) in 1939.
-
Statement
-
Date Issued
-
Title of Statement
- SAP No. 29
- October 1958
- Scope of the Independent Auditor's Review of Internal Control
- SAP No. 41
- November 1971
- Reports on Internal Control
- SAP No. 54
- November 1972
- The Auditor's Study and Evaluation of Internal Control
- SAP No. 3
- December 1974
- The Effects of EDP on the Auditor's Study and Evaluation of Internal Control
- SAS No. 44
- December 1982
- Special-Purpose Reports on Internal Accounting Control at Service Organizations
- SAS No. 48
- July 1984
- The Effects of Computer Processing on the Audit of Financial Statements
- SAS No. 55
- April 1988
- Consideration of Internal Control in a Financial Statement Audit
- SAS No. 70
- April 1992
- Service Organizations
- SAS No. 78
- December 1995
- Consideration of Internal Control in a Financial Statement Audit: An Amendment to Statement on Auditing Standards No. 55
- SAS No. 88
- December 1999
- Service Organizations and Reporting on Consistency
- SAS No. 94
- May 2001
- The Effect of Information Technology on the Auditor's Consideration of Internal Control in a Financial Statement Audit
- PCAOB No. 2
- March 2004
- An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting in Conjunction with an Audit of Financial Statements. Note: Appendix B refers to Service Organizations.
- PCAOB No. 5
- May 2007
- An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting that is Integrated with an Audit of Financial Statements. Note: Appendix B17-B17 covers Service Organization considerations.
- ISAE No. 3402
- December 2009
- Assurance Reports on Controls at a Service Organization
- SSAE No. 16
- April 2010
- Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization
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