AICPA SOC Service Organizations

NERC RSAWs

Reliability Standard Audit Worksheets (RSAWs) are used by NERC Compliance Enforcement Authorities (CEAs) when auditing Registered Entities. The RSAW is your primary method of communicating your entity’s internal compliance process, controls, and evidence.

As such, RSAWs are the “make it or break it” component of your audit – they are the road map of your compliance program because

  • they are the tool for identifying non-compliances and potential violations.
  • they determine whether or not sufficient evidence supports your compliance with applicable NERC Reliability Standards and requirements.
  • they serve as a public record of your audit, they help you prepare for an audit and, if maintained properly, they provide for on-going compliance maintenance.

Effective RSAW narratives streamline the audit process, and reduce the number of requests for additional information. They can also help entities identify the types of evidence that an audit team will require as proof of compliance. The key differentiator with our RSAW solution is the ability to collect, store, and update all RSAW data and evidence documents in one place. This makes generating RSAWs as easy as a click of a button!

Over the past few years, Regional and Registered Entities have been sharing NERC audit experiences and best practices. While helpful, they are often broad discussions of “Here’s what was required, here’s what we did, make sure you address that” type of presentations.

However, when Notification of Audit letters arrive in your inbox defining the audit scope and sub-requirements, those PowerPoint discussions simply do not go deep enough into the real challenges of responding to RSAWs. We can guide you through those challenges.

“Certrec has a tool for every aspect of NERC compliance and they have been instrumental in our success in preparing for our audits. With their help, we were able to receive zero findings in our last audit!”