ISAE 3402 | Preparing Service Organizations for the Global Standard on Assurance Reporting

The ISAE 3402 standard will require service organizations to be proactive in meeting the requirements that will be placed on them by their service auditors. As such, service organizations would highly benefit from conducting an ISAE 3402 Readiness Assessment, which will assist in understanding the reporting requirements, which include the following:

• Preparing a description of the service organization's "system"
• Preparing a written statement of assertion to be included in the final ISAE 3402 report.

Additionally, the internal audit function within a service organization can potentially be involved in the overall process of the assurance engagement, if the service auditor deems its objectivity and professionalism to be acceptable.

Thus, conducting an ISAE 3402 Readiness Assessment will greatly assist service organizations in understanding the scope of the engagement along with the reporting requirements for the ISAE 3402 standard.