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Internal Controls
Posted inInternal Controls
IIA Unveils New Guidance For IT Controls
The Institute of Internal Auditors has unveiled new guidance intended to help companies and auditors scope the IT general controls that should be included in their annual assessments of internal controls over financial reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley. IT general controls—the controls that assure the proper operation of IT applications and automated controls and help protect data […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Talk Of 404 Delay; Barbs At PCAOB Work
Small companies could get yet another extension for compliance deadlines with Sarbanes-Oxley’s internal control provisions if regulators can’t move quickly enough with their latest proposals to ease compliance burdens, according to Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt. Hewitt, speaking in New York last week at the Foundation of Accounting Education’s annual conference, stressed […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Cure For SOX-Testing Blues At Royal Ahold
As many Compliance Week readers know, our company—the $44 billion supermarket operator Royal Ahold, listed on the New York Stock Exchange—was accused in 2004 of filing materially false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since then, Ahold has succesfully completed its road to recovery, and improving our system of internal controls was crucial to […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
‘Use Work Of Others’ Idea Has Its Skeptics
&articleOne vital provision of the proposals to reign in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs is a retreat on requirements that external auditors gather original evidence to support their conclusions—but skepticism is already whirling over whether the pullback will achieve the intended outcome. In its proposed package of new rules to govern the audit of internal control over […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
AS2 Reforms Still Getting Heap Of Criticism
Regulators might be touting their proposed reforms of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance as more efficient and cost-effective, but not everyone is thrilled with the current proposals. The latest chance to comment on plans from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to overhaul SOX compliance has generated a flurry of criticism, mostly […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Life Under A Scaled-Down SOX 404
With a new roadmap to help companies obey the Sarbanes-Oxley Act now in hand and compliance deadlines for non-accelerated filers officially set, the task of evaluating and reporting the effectiveness of internal controls should be a vastly different experience for the legions of small companies now preparing to comply with Section 404 for the first […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Demystifying The ‘Monitoring’ Of Controls
Companies complaining about the cost of complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could be missing an opportunity to reduce those expenses through one of the less-understood elements of a good internal controls framework: monitoring. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations believes that companies aren’t paying enough attention to monitoring, according to Dave Richards, president […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SOX 404 Changes Finally Released
Just in time for the holidays, the Securities and Exchange Commission has presented its long-awaited guidance to help companies improve compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. A text of the specific proposal was not immediately available, but the Commission voted Dec. 13 to issue new interpretive guidance to help corporations conduct evaluations of their internal […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC Takes Aim At SOX 404, Internet Proxies
All eyes in the corporate-governance world will turn to the Securities and Exchange Commission tomorrow when it will consider a whirlwind of rulemaking, from long-awaited guidance to help companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, to disseminating proxy materials via the Internet, to easing the way for foreign private issuers to delist from U.S. markets. Absent from tomorrow’s […]
