System Organization Controls Resources

Susan B. Anders, PhD, CPA/CGMA

The AICPA's December 2019 exposure draft, “Maintaining the Relevance of the Uniform CPA Examination,” includes a discussion of the growing importance of “SOC 1 reports,” as businesses are increasingly outsourcing information systems management, data processing, and data storage to third parties (http://bit.ly/36CVv4U). SOC 1 reports are designed to assist service organizations and auditors in evaluating the effect of System Organization Controls for Service Organizations (SOC) on the financial statements. The AICPA has indicated that while it continues to study whether newly licensed CPAs should be familiar with SOCs, it will increase the emphasis of this topic on the Audit and Business Environment and Concepts sections of the CPA Exam.