SSAE No. 19: Agreed Upon Procedures

Understand the guidelines and benefits of SSAE 19.

Attestation services (audits, reviews, etc.) from independent third parties provide assurances over financial and nonfinancial information. These services tend to be expensive for those requesting them, and impose a lot of risk on those providing the services. It is also a time-consuming process for all parties involved due to the multitude of complex requirements governing attestation services. Before the issuance of Statements on Standards of Assurance Engagements (SSAE) 19, it was simply impractical to obtain or conduct these services when only a limited level of assurance was needed. SSAE 19 provides the guidelines necessary for when expensive, risky, and time-consuming assurance services are not appropriate or practical. Flexibility is the overwhelming benefit of SSAE 19: flexibility over the services that can be provided and flexibility over how these services can be performed. Many organizations can now obtain competitive advantages that were previously out of reach. Whether you are a practitioner wanting to provide value-added services to your client or an organization looking for cost-effective growth opportunities, an understanding of SSAE 19 is critical.