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Recent Coverage Of Internal Control Issues (SOX 404)

Below is some of the most recent Compliance Week coverage related to the internal control provisions of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, ubiquitously known as “Section 404 of SOX.” Includes extensive coverage of ICFR issues, including the PCAOB’s Audit Standard No. 5, and related audit and “top-down, risk-based” approach issues. See also The Resource Exchange for checklists, process maps, surveys, questionnaires, and other tools submitted by public company executives to assist them in complying with SOX 404.

  Title & Description Date Type of Article
1. Internal Control Support for External Reporting
QUESTION
 By Kevin Hyams
11/18/08 Compliance Week Coverage
2. Advice for Conflict-of-Interest Audits
Perhaps no other area of business conduct is as fraught with potential peril as are conflicts of interest. In my October 2008 column, I wrote on how abuse of travel and entertainment expenses can hint at bigger fraud problems. We’re in luck; similar irregular spending habits can also be red flags for potential conflicts of interests.
 By José Tabuena
11/04/08 Columns & Editorials
3. Avoiding Segregation-of-Duties Woe in IT
With the United States in the grips of an economic crisis, now is as good a time as any for Corporate America to reassess its internal controls. And segregation of duties is always crucial to reducing the occurrence of fraud or error within an organization.
 By Jaclyn Jaeger
10/14/08 Compliance Week Coverage
4. Auditing T&E Programs: Where to Find the Fraud
In his August 2008 column, Dan Swanson wrote about returning to internal auditing roots by looking at specific departments (finance, human resources, and so forth) rather than auditing’s flavor of the month—such as enterprise risk management, information security, and fraud control.
 By Jose Tabuena
10/07/08 Columns & Editorials
5. Will Solid 2009 Remediation Plan Curb Weakness in 2008?
Question:
 By Jonathan Marks
09/23/08 Compliance Week Coverage
6. Twitchy Economy, SOX Maturation Lead to Big 4 Layoffs
Reforms to alleviate the burden of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance may finally be taking a bite out of the Big 4 firms, which reportedly are laying off waves of workers now that demand for their services has diminished.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
09/09/08 Compliance Week Coverage
7. COSO Monitoring Guidance Moves Closer
New guidance for compliance executives and internal auditors on monitoring internal controls should be in hand as soon as next month.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
09/03/08 Compliance Week Coverage
8. Editorial: Strength From Weaknesses: SOX Compliance and Why We’re Here
As subscribers know, Compliance Week is constantly tracking critical issues for legal and financial executives at public companies. And for the last six years, much of our coverage on the financial side of the house has dealt with fallout from The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, particularly Section 404. Much of that coverage has focused recently on how to comply, or how to do so more efficiently; however, occasionally it’s worth remembering why we comply as well.
 By Matt Kelly
09/01/08 Columns & Editorials
9. SEC to Consider IFRS Rule; SOX Lives; More
The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and Amex stock exchanges have all revised their director independence standards to bring them in line with Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure requirements.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
08/26/08 Compliance Week Coverage
10. 2007 Material Weaknesses Plummet
The number of material weaknesses large companies are reporting has plunged in the last two years, according to an exclusive Compliance Week analysis—further evidence that Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, as onerous as it is, has compelled a dramatic improvement in companies’ internal control over financial reporting.
 By Jaclyn Jaeger
08/05/08 Compliance Week Coverage
11. Monthly Flux Analysis Has Company in Flux
At the request of subscribers, Compliance Week offers a Remediation Center, in which readers can submit questions—anonymously—to securities and accounting experts. Compliance Week’s editors will review all questions and then submit them—confidentially, of course—to specialists who can address the issues. The questions and responses will then be reprinted in a future edition of Compliance Week. Below is one of the Q&As; ask your own questions by clicking here.
 By Parveen Gupta, Lehigh University
07/29/08 Compliance Week Coverage
12. Audit Fee Increases Appear to Slow
Public companies are exerting some new muscle over their audit costs, finally ending an unprecedented period of open-ended audit bills.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
07/29/08 Compliance Week Coverage
13. Survey Says AS5 Helps Cut SOX Cost
After four years of focusing on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, internal auditors are finally starting to feel like they can give their attention to other matters, according to a recent study.
 By Christine Dunn
07/15/08 Compliance Week Coverage
14. COSO Releases Draft Guidance on Monitoring
Compliance executives and internal auditors are one step closer to getting valuable and eagerly anticipated guidance on monitoring internal controls, one of the most misunderstood dimensions of an effective internal controls system.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
06/17/08 Compliance Week Coverage
15. New Risks (and Controls) in Hiring Programs
When the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced plans two years ago to shift its focus to “systemic discrimination” in the office, it wasn’t kidding: In 2007, the EEOC more than doubled the number of enforcement actions from the previous year and recovered record-setting monetary awards.
 By Caron Carlson
06/10/08 Compliance Week Coverage
16. Achieving the Mythical ‘Mature’ GRC System
Companies with “mature” IT governance, risk, and compliance regimes have happier customers, make more money, and suffer fewer data-related disasters.
 By Todd Neff
05/28/08 Compliance Week Coverage
17. Auditing Royalty Payments From Overseas
At the request of subscribers, Compliance Week offers a Remediation Center, in which readers can submit questions—anonymously—to securities and accounting experts. Compliance Week’s editors will review all questions and then submit them—confidentially, of course—to specialists who can address the issues. The questions and responses will then be reprinted in a future edition of Compliance Week. Below is one of the Q&As; ask your own questions by clicking here.
 By Daniel Helming and Arnold Schanfield
05/06/08 Compliance Week Coverage
18. SOX Costs Down; FASB News; More
Audit costs related to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for public companies declined for the first time in 2007 as companies and auditors alike grew accustomed to the process, but the joy is muted by a slight increase in overall audit costs.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
05/06/08 Compliance Week Coverage
19. PCAOB Promises Hard Push on AS5
With year-end financial reporting now winding down, audit inspection teams are hitting the ground under strict orders to see whether Auditing Standard No. 5 is indeed taking root at audit firms.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
05/06/08 Compliance Week Coverage
20. The Sustainability Officer’s Rising Role
As the pressure grows on corporations to become more environmentally and socially responsible, so too do the responsibilities of today’s chief sustainability officer.
 By Caron Carlson
04/29/08 Compliance Week Coverage
21. Small Filers Warming to New SOX Regime
Solar Integrated Technologies, a California company currently listed on London’s increasingly popular (and less regulated) AIM exchange, has always had its sights on being listed in the United States. The worry: regulatory considerations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
 By Jabulani Leffall
04/29/08 Compliance Week Coverage
22. Why Using the Right Words Really Does Matter
We all know the importance of effective communication, in both formal and informal settings, to get our messages across as intended. But how many times have we been misunderstood, or we didn’t understand an idea someone else was trying to convey? The consequences of bad communication range from simply extending a conversation to gain clarity, to talking at cross-purposes resulting in extraordinarily bad business decisions. Yes, tone of voice and body language are important in sending the right message, but using the right words is usually critical.
 By Richard M. Steinberg, Compliance Week Columnist
04/22/08 Columns & Editorials
23. Remediation Center: Tying SOX Compliance to Compensation
At the request of subscribers, Compliance Week offers a Remediation Center, in which readers can submit questions—anonymously—to securities and accounting experts. Compliance Week’s editors will review all questions and then submit them—confidentially, of course—to specialists who can address the issues. The questions and responses will then be reprinted in a future edition of Compliance Week. Below is one of the Q&As; ask your own questions by clicking here.
 By Lee Barken
04/15/08 Compliance Week Coverage
24. Under the Radar: Threat of Safety Controls
Lapses in safety controls might not seem like the sort of thing that could cause material financial problems for a company … right up until the airline industry strands hundreds of thousands of people across the country while it catches up on safety inspections. Then you start wondering how much all this is going to cost.
 By Elizabeth Judd
04/15/08 Compliance Week Coverage
25. New IIA Guidance Incorporates AS5, SEC Guidelines
The Institute of Internal Auditors has finally updated its internal control guidance to incorporate the new Auditing Standard No. 5 and the management guidelines published by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.
 By Christine Dunn
04/08/08 Compliance Week Coverage
26. SEC Goes Global; SOX Relief; More
The Securities and Exchange Commission is forging ahead with plans for mutual recognition of securities firms and regulators overseas, which would give U.S. investors direct access to foreign markets and foreign broker-dealers.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
04/01/08 Compliance Week Coverage
27. The Next Goal in SOX Compliance: Automation
With the books closing on many companies’ first internal control assessments under new, relaxed compliance guidelines, many chief financial officers are already pondering how to improve next year’s processes.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
04/01/08 Compliance Week Coverage
28. 2007 Restatements Plunge in Number, Size
Finally, a downturn the corporate world can be happy about.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
04/01/08 Compliance Week Coverage
29. Improving GRC Effectiveness, While Reducing Costs
In some organizations, the current approach to governance, risk management, internal control, and compliance (GRC) is complex and costly. It is considered a “necessary evil” to doing business, like brakes that get in the way of driving toward objectives.
 By Scott Mitchell, The Open Compliance And Ethics Group
03/25/08 Compliance Week Coverage
30. 404 Delay Goes On; SWF Regulation; More
The ceaseless fight over nonaccelerated companies’ compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley droned on this month, as the Securities and Exchange Commission received a deluge of comments on its proposal to extend the compliance deadline for the auditor attestation part of Section 404.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
03/25/08 Compliance Week Coverage
31. When Risk, Reality, and AS5 Collide
The following true story may sound familiar.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
03/18/08 Compliance Week Coverage
32. Establishing Accountability for Your Antifraud Efforts
Some companies have far lower levels of misappropriation of assets and fraudulent financial reporting than others. Why? Because they aggressively take steps to prevent and detect fraud, end of story.
 By Dan Swanson, Compliance Week Columnist
03/04/08 Columns & Editorials
33. SOX Whistleblower Protections Grow Wider
A recent federal district court decision wedged open a little bit wider the door for workers trying to sue their employers under the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
03/04/08 Compliance Week Coverage
34. Gains on Key Controls May Stall
It’s a fear corporate accounting executives have had for months: that the number of internal controls subject to testing and auditor scrutiny won’t decline all that much, despite new guidance calling for more of a risk-based approach to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
03/04/08 Compliance Week Coverage
35. Recruiting Corporate Directors Post-SOX
The transformation of the corporate boardroom since enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has resulted in numerous profound changes, not the least of which is who gets invited to sit in the boardroom at all.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
02/26/08 Compliance Week Coverage
36. A Behind-the-Curtain Look at AS5
A high-profile former member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has provided a frank glimpse into the bureaucratic clashes over Auditing Standard No. 5—including revelations that the Securities and Exchange Commission fought aggressively to gut AS5’s main provisions.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
02/26/08 Compliance Week Coverage
37. What Internal Auditors Want
In my line of work, I’m often asked exactly what internal auditing is supposed to be. According to the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, the answer is pretty straightforward: “Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations.”
 By Dan Swanson, Compliance Week Columnist
02/05/08 Columns & Editorials
38. Auditors Try New Tactics to Push Internal Control
For smaller companies planning to file thinly supported internal control assessments, beware: Your auditor may have more leverage over your filing than you think.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
02/05/08 Compliance Week Coverage
39. 404(b) Extension Proposed; SEC’s 2008 Priorities; More
As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission has unanimously proposed giving non-accelerated filers a one-year extension on compliance with Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley, the auditor’s attestation part of the nettlesome rule.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
02/05/08 Compliance Week Coverage
40. SOX 404 Help Still Has Small Co. Skeptics
If costs to comply with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley are finally starting to decline because of relaxed standards and corporate adaptation to the rule after five years, Calvin Yu hasn’t noticed.
 By Jabulani Leffall
01/29/08 Compliance Week Coverage
41. Report Highlights Employee Use of Hotlines
A new research report on employee calls to company hotlines finds that smaller businesses are fielding fewer complaints per worker today than they were five years ago, while large companies have seen the complaint rate more than double.
 By Jaclyn Jaeger
01/23/08 Compliance Week Coverage
42. 404(b) Delay: Not Likely to Change Much
News that the Securities and Exchange Commission will probably give smaller companies yet another extension on the auditor’s attestation requirement of Sarbanes-Oxley has certainly set much of Corporate America abuzz—but don’t expect it to change all that much, experts say.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
01/02/08 Compliance Week Coverage
43. The Challenge of Capturing, Evaluating Risks
As former SEC Chairman and Compliance Week Columnist Harvey Pitt wrote in these pages back in June 2004: “Management’s most important job is identifying, assessing, and managing risk.” Unfortunately, that is easier said than done, especially when it comes to communicating that risk to the board. In fact, as Pitt pointed out, management regularly fails to communicate risks to directors on a timely basis, “imperiling the value of a company’s securities and ensuring embarrassment (or worse) when inevitable crises occur for which the company is unprepared.”
 By Scott L. Mitchell
12/18/07 Compliance Week Coverage
44. Audit Firms Warned: Put AS5 to Good Use
As the calendar year comes to a close, auditors are gearing up for their first audits of internal control over financial reporting under a new rulebook. Regulators will be watching closely to assure their instructions are heeded.
 By Tammy Whitehouse
12/18/07 Compliance Week Coverage
45. Will Delay on 404(b) Cure Its Ills?
It won’t happen before the holidays, but smaller companies could soon get a gift they’ve been hoping for: another delay in complying with at least a portion of Section 404.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
12/18/07 Compliance Week Coverage
46. Are You Protecting Your Digital Assets?
Safeguarding assets has been an important objective of all organizations for centuries. In today’s digital age however, what does safeguarding your assets really mean? Who is responsible for it? And how is “protection” actually achieved?
 By Dan Swanson, Compliance Week Columnist
12/04/07 Columns & Editorials
47. Huge Progress in 404 Compliance
Corporate America has cut the number of internal control weaknesses it reports under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by nearly 45 percent in the three years since SOX went into effect, a dramatic demonstration that companies are learning to tighten their financial reporting processes.
 By Melissa Klein Aguilar
11/27/07 Compliance Week Coverage
48. Disclosure of Section 404 Weaknesses
Spreadsheet analyzing the top weaknesses disclosed by public companies in Years 1, 2 and 3 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
 By Compliance Week and by Compliance Week
11/27/07 Compliance Week Coverage
49. Empowering CEOs in a Shifting Landscape
My last two columns dealt with the tug of war between boards of directors and shareholders and how boards are best comprised to effectively carry out their responsibilities. Central to these issues is the relationship with the chief executive officer; specifically, how to provide the kind of oversight that enables the CEO to run the business and achieve growth and return objectives.
 By Richard M. Steinberg, Compliance Week Columnist
11/20/07 Columns & Editorials
50. Auditing Computer Controls With AS5
Once upon a time, broad reviews of general computer controls were a cornerstone of IT audits. Now, Auditing Standard No. 5 may well close the book on that practice.
 By Jabulani Leffall
10/30/07 Compliance Week Coverage

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