Sarbanes
Oxley
The
Challenge
The Sarbanes Oxley Act requires organization to define, evaluate and
document processes for senior management certification and audit that effective
controls are in place.
• Section 404 is a control initiative that requires processes to
record and report transactions, in addition to external auditor certification
of annual reports
• Section 302 requires senior management certification of financial
reports on an annual and quarterly basis, including certification
of veracity, disclosure of material changes and of deficiencies in
controls.
Public and private companies as well as federal agencies are adopting
Sarbanes Oxley to manage internal controls due to governance requirements. "Companies
today need to focus on putting controls in place to safeguard their
assets and to promote reliable financial reporting. Numerous fraudulent
financial reporting cases clearly indicate that weak corporate governance
and ineffective internal controls are associated with a higher risk
of fraud. Therefore, strong internal controls are absolutely essential
to stamping out fraud and abuse.” stated Dana R. Hermanson,
Ph.D., Dinos Eminent Scholar Chair of Private Enterprise and Professor
of Accounting Kennesaw State University.
The
Solution
Utilizing the Compliance 360 Sarbanes Oxley application, companies
can manage all facets of SOX compliance while integrating those activities
with corporate-wide compliance initiatives. Based on the framework
from the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission
(COSO), Compliance 360 SOX supports financial reporting processes
while helping companies more effectively manage objectives, risk,
controls, testing and auditing.
The product includes:
• Robust scheduling component that automates controls testing cycles
and duration
• Instantaneous notifications of significant issues in the controls
environment
• Ability to import existing corporate data into application
• Real-time, intuitive dashboard and reports
• Identification of key controls to measure and assess risk impact
• User defined read-only, remote access for internal or external
audit committees
• Capability to pre-set workflow automation per process, employee
or document
• Flexible, customizable risk scoring mechanism (Quick Score) or
survey template
• Ability to retain audit trail and document version history
• Logical linkage and shared processes, objectives, risks and controls
in many-to-many relationships
• Supervisory oversight review of all testing results before posting
The
Benefits
Customers who utilize the new products can benefit from:
• Increased accountability and visibility into compliance status
•
Decreased labor intensive processes, documentation and testing
•
Enforcement of organization standards and consistency in the risk/control
environment
•
Increased employee efficiency and productivity through workflow enabled
processes
•
Reduction in current audit costs with secured, read-only defined remote
access
Our
Advantage
Traditionally, SOX compliance solutions have been limited to financial
reporting and the internal audit function and do not incorporate
all the other corporate risks and vulnerabilities. Unlike other SOX
tools, Compliance 360’s product assists not only the finance
team in managing risk and compliance but also helps coordinate finance
efforts with the legal, IT, human resources and other departments
by seamlessly integrating with the rest of the Compliance 360 product
suite. Executives have a much better view of how their entire organization
is impacted by issues well beyond Sarbanes Oxley regulations.
Integrating the SOX application into the existing Compliance 360
application gives customers a single, unified platform for all enterprise
governance, risk and compliance (GRC) management needs.
Utilizing the Compliance 360 GRC platform, you will be able to access
all current regulations and laws linked to your policies, projects
and procedures, coordinate compliance, risk and legal staff activities
while being able to show total proof of compliance across all departments,
divisions and business units.
For more information,
download the SOX
product brief
SOX
& ERM Press Release
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