---
title: "What is iso 27001?"
description: "Iso 27001 explained in plain English: definition, how it works, an example, and how it appears in QuickBooks and Xero."
url: https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/iso-27001/
updated: 2026-09-11
publisher: LedgerBPO (SS Support Network LLC)
language: en-US
---

# What is iso 27001?

Glossary

ISO 27001 is an international standard for an information security management system, or ISMS, setting requirements for how an organization identifies risks and applies controls to protect information. Certification is issued by an accredited third-party body after an audit against the standard.

Updated September 2026

## How iso 27001 works

Implementing ISO 27001 involves a risk assessment across the organization's information assets, selecting controls to address identified risks, and documenting policies covering areas such as access control, supplier relationships and incident management. The resulting ISMS is meant to be reviewed and improved continuously, not built once.

Certification requires an external audit by an accredited certification body, followed by periodic surveillance audits to confirm the ISMS is still being maintained. Because the certification is specific and verifiable, businesses evaluating a vendor's security posture can ask to see the certificate and its scope rather than relying on general claims. Unlike SOC 2, which is common in North America, ISO 27001 is widely recognized internationally and is often specifically requested by customers and partners based in Europe, the Middle East or Asia as part of their own vendor due diligence process. A business operating across multiple regions sometimes pursues both standards to satisfy different customers' expectations.

## Example

A financial services vendor completes a year-long ISO 27001 implementation, documenting its risk assessment, access control policies and incident response procedures. An accredited certification body audits the ISMS, issues certification covering the vendor's cloud infrastructure and customer data handling, and returns for a surveillance audit the following year to confirm controls are still in place. The vendor's certificate lists the exact scope covered, which a prospective customer can request to confirm the systems handling their specific data are actually included rather than assuming the whole company is certified.

## ISO 27001 in QuickBooks Online vs Xero

Not software-specific: ISO 27001 is an organizational certification, not a QuickBooks Online or Xero feature, though a business pursuing certification typically relies on its accounting and operational software's access controls and audit logs as part of the evidence it presents to the certification auditor.

## Related terms

- [SOC 2](https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/soc-2/)
- [FTC Safeguards Rule](https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/ftc-safeguards-rule/)
- [HIPAA](https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/hipaa/)
- [All terms](https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/)

## How LedgerBPO handles iso 27001

LedgerBPO lists certifications only when they are actually held, so we state our current certification status plainly on our security page rather than implying one we do not hold. Regardless of certification, we apply access controls, encryption and MFA across the systems handling client data.

[How we protect your financial data](https://ledgerbpo.com/security/)

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Source: https://ledgerbpo.com/glossary/iso-27001/ · Contact: https://ledgerbpo.com/contact/ · Full site map for agents: https://ledgerbpo.com/llms.txt