Internal Controls

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: Companies preparing to comply for the first time with the internal controls reporting provisions of Section 404 need to get moving now. That was the advice to non-accelerated filers from a panel of experts at Compliance Week’s annual conference. Brounstein “Get started,” said Rick Brounstein, executive vice […]

Audit firms and issuers take note: Guidance on implementing the new Auditing Standard No. 5 is coming. During remarks at Compliance Week 2007 on Thursday, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman Mark Olson noted that the board is “working with practitioners to develop tailored implementation guidance for audits of internal controls in smaller companies.” Olson […]

Audit firms and issuers take note: Guidance on implementing the new Auditing Standard No. 5 is coming. During remarks at Compliance Week 2007 on Thursday, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman Mark Olson noted that the board is “working with practitioners to develop tailored implementation guidance for audits of internal controls in smaller companies.” Olson […]

Fat risk, lean controls. That’s what Bruce McCuaig said SEC guidance and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards should be looking for—risk in this case being the rigorous inventorying of compliance risk. It’s not what he found. McCuaig, chief risk officer for governance, risk, and compliance software firm Paisley, did some word counting recently. In […]

Accounting experts aren’t rushing to judgment that Auditing Standard No. 5 will result in an overnight reversal of excessive auditing—primarily because the new rule has no influence over escalating auditor liability concerns—but they are optimistic that it will steer auditors in a new direction. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved AS5 late last month […]

While the unveiling of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s final management guidance on evaluating and assessing internal control over financial reporting held few surprises, observers had mixed reactions to some of the revisions, particularly the decision not to extend the filing deadline for non-accelerated filers. As expected, the SEC voted last week to approve the […]

Promising a new direction in the audit of internal control over financial reporting, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has put to pasture the oft criticized Auditing Standard No. 2, replacing it with Auditing Standard No. 5. The newly approved AS5 differs from what the Board proposed when it first exposed its package of rules […]

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to adopt final guidance for management on evaluating and assessing internal control over financial reporting as required by Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. No further extensions were given for non-accelerated filers, which means those companies must start complying with Section 404’s management provisions in next year’s annual […]

Much has been written about the proposals from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. If you’ve been dealing with 404 implementation, you’re probably already familiar with what the proposals say, so I won‘t bore you with another recitation. I do, however, have some observations that […]