Today's businesses have seen a dramatic increase in the use of outsourced providers to assist with executing processes from payroll, accounts payable, information technology, benefit plan administration and many other core processes. These processes ultimately have an impact on an organization's internal control over financial reporting but also could impact compliance and operational issues.
In 2011, the Statement for Auditing Standards Attest Engagements (SSAE 16) replaced the former SAS70 Standard. In May 2017, a new standard SSAE 18 has superseded SSAE 16. The concepts covered is referred to as a Service Organization Control Report (SOC). Organizations who utilize outsourced providers should understand of the various types of SOC reports, their intended use and their implication on a company's financial reporting process, regardless of your status as a publicly traded or privately held organization. The process can be complicated to understand as a user organization. Currently, several types of SOC Reports exist including:
- SOC 1 - Type 1
- SOC 1 - Type 2
- SOC 2 - Type 1
- SOC 2 - Type 2
- SOC 2
- SOC 3
- Cybersecurity SOC
Publication Date: October 2024
Topics Covered
- Move from SAS70 and SSAE16 to SSAE18
- Types of Service Organizations
- SOC 1 Engagements
- Control Objectives
- SOC 1 Execution
- SOC 2 Engagements
- SOC 2 Execution
- SOC 3 Reports
- SOC for Cybersecurity
- SOC Comparisons
- Reporting Opinions
- SOC Reporting
- Preparing for SOC Engagment
- Summary
- Appendix
- SOC 1 Questions for Considerations
- Readiness Assessment Checklist
Learning Objectives
- Explain the transition of the accounting standards
- Identify and evaluate the various types of service and subservice organizations
- Identify and examine procedures to conduct a SOC 1 engagement, SOC 2 and SOC 3 engagement
- Identify the SOC cybersecurity requirements
- Identify and evaluate the proper use of control objectives
- Identify the various reporting methods for SOC reports
- Recognize and evaluate requirements for user entities
Level
Basic
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Accounting (1 hour), Auditing (1 hour)
Program Prerequisites
None
Advance Preparation
None
Instructor
Lynn Fountain
Lynn Fountain has over 38 years of experience spanning public accounting, corporate accounting and consulting. 20 years of her experience has been working in the areas of internal and external auditing and risk management. She is a subject matter expert in multiple fields including internal audit, ethics, fraud evaluations, Sarbanes-Oxley, enterprise risk management, governance, financial management and compliance. Lynn has held two Chief Audit Executive (CAE) positions for international companies. In one of her roles as CAE, she assisted in the investigation of a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme perpetrated by a vendor that spanned 7 years and implicated 20 employees. The fraud was formally investigation by the FBI and resulted in 5 indictments estimating a $13M fraud loss.
Ms. Fountain is currently engaged in her own consulting and training practice. She is a highly sought-after trainer and international speaker. In addition, Ms. Fountain has assisted numerous companies with enterprise risk management frameworks, internal audit processes and financial accounting. She also serves as a discussion leader for the AICPA for numerous classes finance, accounting and risk management topics.
Ms. Fountain is the author of three separate technical books. Her first book released in 2015 by the Institute of Internal Auditors Foundation is entitled “Raise the Red Flag – The Internal Auditors Guide to Fraud Evaluations”. Her second book “Leading the Internal Audit Function” was released in October 2015 by Taylor & Francis Publications. This book serves as the initial launch for a series of leading practice internal audit and information technology publications. Her third book “Ethics and the Internal Auditor’s Dilemma” was released in December 2016.
Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas. She has her CPA, CGMA, CRMA credentials.