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Sarbanes-Oxley - Section 404 - Finance transformation or expensive audit?

Date Uploaded: [ 18-04-2008 ]      Filesize: [ 189k ]

For such a far-reaching and important piece of legislation the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is remarkably light on practical guidance to its implementation. 

The bulk of the work in achieving compliance with the act is driven by Section 404 which looks at the internal controls. However, Section 404 of SOX simply states that a requirement exists that “Annual reports filed with the SEC shall state the responsibility of management for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting”, and “contain an assessment of the effectiveness of such controls”. 

Our own practical experience and research highlights that there are widely varying approaches to implementation with correspondingly wide results in terms of costs and outputs. Most projects share a common series of activities. 

This Insight provides you with a basic framework for implementing Sarbanes-Oxley, but more importantly, gives you practical guidance on the key decisions organisations face around how to approach their implementation, and a set of key tips on the practical execution of the project.

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