The Assurance Services Executive Committee is the senior committee that sets the standards for assurance engagements outside a financial-statement audit. Its members decide which new assurance services the profession will offer and which standard will govern each one.
One family of reports under that work is Service Organization Control (SOC). The committee owns the standard. A firm then performs the engagement and signs the report.
What the Committee Decides
- Which services. It names the assurance services that sit outside an audit of the financial statements.
- Which standard. It adopts or revises the standard an engagement of that type must follow.
- Not the report itself. The committee does not examine a particular company’s controls or sign that company’s report.
Standard Setter and Reporting Firm
| Compared | The Committee | The Reporting Firm |
| Role | Sets the standard for the engagement | Performs the engagement and signs the report |
| A single company | Does not examine that company’s controls | Examines the controls the standard names |
| A revision of the standard | The committee adopts it | Later reports follow the revised standard |