It must be understood that a SAS-70 report is issued by an auditor for the use by an auditor, so for a newbie it can be a challenging task to read and understand the contents of a SAS-70 audit report. However, once you understand the framework of the audit report the reading of the audit report will be a much easy task. Service Auditor's Report the Service Auditor's Opinion forms a part of the big report which could be easily identified in the audit report. Usually it is a one to two page report in letter format from the independent auditor addressed to the management of the organization. The language used for the opinion has to generally follow the fairly explicit guidelines prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The auditor’s opinion provides details of the auditor's approach and the outlines the scope of the audit. The most important item is the date on which the controls were evaluated and also the date(s) on which these controls were put into operation. This way you can determine if the report if of Type I or Type II report. For example, if the internal controls had been evaluated at a particular point in time, but there is no mention of a period of time, then it is most likely a Type I report. The main audit opinion and conclusion there on is usually stated towards the end of the report. Next part you can expect to see in the audit report is the description of controls in place at the Service Organization. It is the service organizations which provide the descriptions of the controls; however the auditor may assist the organization in preparation of these descriptions. These descriptions usually contain the details of the internal control environment at the service organization, the process of risk assessment, the processes of controlling information and communication and how monitoring is done of processes which may directly affect the services to the user organizations vis-à -vis their financial audit is concerned.
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It must be understood that a SAS-70 report is issued by an auditor for the use by an auditor, so for a newbie it can be a challenging task to read and understand the contents of a SAS-70 audit report. However, once you understand the framework of the audit report the reading of the audit report will be a much easy task. Service Auditor's Report the Service Auditor's Opinion forms a part of the big report which could be easily identified in the audit report.
Dean Monroe also writes for Syma Tech on topics such as MMDS and Service Management Visit Reading a SAS-70 Report.
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