Consulting
 Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Software
As the deadlines for complying with the Sarbanes Oxley Act near, publicly traded companies across the United States are scurrying to deploy software packages that will put them in compliance. The law, officially known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act and enacted in July 2002, requires companies to make new disclosures on internal controls, ethics codes and the makeup of their audit committees on annual reports.
The act is better known by its nickname, after its co-sponsors, Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., and Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, who chairs the House-Senate conference committee meeting on corporate accounting reform. The initial phase of the act focuses on Section 404, which requires companies to perform a self-assessment of risks for business processes that affect financial reporting.
Public companies with market capitalizations of $75 million or more must be sarbanes oxley compliance per Section 404 for their fiscal year ending on or after June 15. Smaller companies have until the fiscal year ending on or after April 15, 2005, to comply.
But according to several large companies embroiled in the process, compliance isn't turning out to be quick or cheap.
Solution:
A company doesn't need to abandon the use of Excel to rectify perceived shortcomings, as they are typically a problem of data storage, not Excel data presentation. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!
Moreover, MGI takes spreadsheet remediation one step further than the usual "document management" solutions by transforming them into centrally managed Corporate Performance Management applications. Once automated, these spreadsheets can be integrated with other CPM solutions, and their data can be made available on Executive Dashboards for greater visibility and control.
See PricewaterhouseCoopers"The use of spreadsheets: Sarbanes Oxley Compliance 404"
Note: SOX, Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, Sarbanes Oxley 404 and Sarbanes Oxley Act are all in the same category and essentially mean the same thing.
Dashboards Balanced Scorecards Corporate Performance Management Reporting Systems CEO Dashboard Analysis Budgeting Forecasting OLAP Corporate Consulting |
Automation and Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Software |
"Automated Systems"
Some companies also place a great deal of emphasis on developing dashboards that will enable them to extract high-level reports on compliance for top management.
Technology consulting company Kanbay International is integrating a reporting tool at the same time that it completes its first year of Sarbanes Oxley compliance - largely through manual efforts. Corporate controller Bruce Fortelka adds, a top priority is "being able to extract high level summary reports from the tool - something that the CFO and CEO can rely on to know that controls are in place, have been tested and reviewed."
CFO.com
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