Sarbanes Oxley

Sarbanes Oxley Act

The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) was established in 2002 after numerous financial scandals weakened investor confidence in the accounting and financial controls of public companies. The SOX Act establishes new accounting requirements and control for US public companies. Also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, SOX Compliance is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its purpose is to protect shareholders against fraudulent accounting practices by requiring companies to certify the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclorues to ensure the appropriateness and legitimacy of financial accounts.

What is SOX Compliance

The scope of SOX Compliance is broad and encompasses a company's management of quality, security and operational risk. Effective risk control of Information Technology (IT) is an essential element of corporate governance and is a key enabler for business process control and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley legal and regulatory framework. SOX Compliance is the process of ensuring transparency of corporate disclosures by requiring that internal controls related to financial reporting are documented and tested to ensure the effectiveness of accounting controls in the construction of annual reports and other financial disclosures.

Sarbanes Oxley Related: , , , , , , , , ,

SOX Compliance Checklist

SOX Compliance Checklist Template

This SOX Compliance Audit Checklist can be tailored to include your specific SOX Compliance needs. The SOX Compliance Audit Checklist Template is one of the elements of the internal control review within a Sarbanes Oxley Compliance audit. This checklist covers the main points of audit for compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act. If there are areas that do not apply to your organization, they can be removed. If there are unique or specific areas you wish to focus on that are not included, they can be added. This SOX compliance checklist is not meant to be inclusive of all Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC regulatory guidelines. If some of these SOX compliance checklist items are already being assessed in other processes, then they do not have to be repeated. This checklist should be completed regularly. If there are significant problem areas, more frequent audits may be warranted. Non- SOX-compliant areas should be explained with a plan for correction of any problems. This is meant to be an internal tool and can be used to identify high risk areas for process improvement. The SOX audit checklist can be a useful part of a Sarbanes Oxley Compliance plan and can also be employed in reengineering initiatives for regulatory compliance.

  • Have all the individuals and groups who will be participating in the audit given consideration to and comprehend the nature of the major sections of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and what they entail?
  • Are the roles of the CEO, CFO, CIO and Sarbanes Oxley Audit teams clearly understood?
  • Are procedures in place to ensure that the IT team provides regular reports on any significant changes or additions to the information technology systems if those changes might affect Sarbanes Oxley Compliance?
  • Are procedures in place to ensure that regular compliance meetings are conducted with IT users and staff for issues related to SOX Compliance?
  • Is there documentary evidence to prove that the Sarbanes Oxley Compliance meeting minutes have been recorded and compliance progress tracked?
  • Is there ongoing documented training for the administration of the compliance audit program?
  • Are procedures in place to ensure that compliance reports have been analyzed regarding new IT systems or changes to existing IT systems might affect SOX Compliance?
  • Are procedures in place to ensure that an analysis was done and follow up procedures are in place for noncompliance reports?

Sarbanes Oxley Related: , , , , , ,

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)