SAS 70

Friday 10 April 2009

SAS 70 stands for “Statement on Auditing Standards number 70”. It is a standard for certifying process control.

SAS 70 (from 1993) describes how external auditors can judge the internal process control of an outsourcing party.

SAS 70 is created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). There are dozens of SAS standards. SAS 70 is used more and more by outsourcing companies. Especially financial institutions are keen on SAS 70.

With a SAS 70 report organizations can prove to have control over their management processes in a datacenter. There are two types of SAS 70 reports:

1. Type I  = Report on Controls Placed in Operation. This concerns the setup and existence of control measures and the effectiveness to achieve predefined goals.
2. Type II = Report on Controls Placed in Operation and Test of Operating Effectiveness. Invokes Type I but includes a check if the processes are actually used in the day-to-day business.

The basis of a SAS 70 report usually is a set of proper implemented ITIL processes. SAS 70 does not prescribe certain processes, but checks if the processes are embedded in the organization and if they are being performed.

Usually a SAS 70 report is created by an external auditor (usually an accountant agency), jus like the yearly financial report.

SAS 70 can help comply to legal obligations, like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - SOX. The report assures outsourcing companies the processes at the insourcing party are of good standing.