Executive management, audit committees, and the board want to know whether their internal control systems work. The chief audit executive is often requested to issue an opinion on the adequacy of internal controls within the organization to meet this assurance need. If a CAE does issue a formal opinion, it’s crucial that all parties clearly […]
Internal Controls
Posted inInternal Controls
Sifting Through New e-Discovery Technology
New federal rules governing electronic discovery take effect Dec. 1, leaving corporations scant time to evaluate and implement any technology or procedures to help handle looming new standards of producing electronic records in litigation. The biggest change: Companies must be prepared to address e-discovery issues immediately after a suit is filed. Under the new rules, […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Managing Outsourced Auditing Functions
ATMI Inc. knew it would have a lot to swallow if it tried to manage Sarbanes-Oxley compliance alone. So the $305 million materials company did the usual thing, and hired an outside consulting firm to help. Then came the other usual thing: a bill from the consulting firm, for far more than expected. In ATMI’s […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Flowcharts See Revival As Auditing Tool
A picture is worth a thousand words. And that principle can prove very useful in the endless drive for more efficient auditing of internal controls. Flowcharts—those simple diagrams created to depict how a transaction unfolds—have seen a surge in popularity in the last three years, as internal auditors struggle to find ways to document internal […]
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The New COSO Guidance: Wisdom For All
COSO—the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission—recently released its long-awaited internal control guidance for small business. The new document is designed to help non-accelerated filers and other companies reduce the burdensome costs that have been or would be incurred in dealing with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. Before we get into how the guidance […]
Posted inInternal Controls
New 404 Extension, As SEC Preps Guidance
Memo from the Securities and Exchange Commission to smaller public companies: Ask and ye shall receive … a delay. The SEC’s decision last week to extend—yet again—the deadline for non-accelerated filers to comply with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley gives small public companies still more time to get their internal controls in order. Equally important, the […]
Posted inInternal Controls
The Challenge Of Internal Auditing At Small Cos.
When Andrew Ng joined Magma Design Automation 18 months ago, one of his top priorities at the $165 million software maker was to build an internal audit department. Ng faced what many small public companies, or those businesses with small internal audit departments, must address: no internal staff, reliance on consulting firms for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance […]
Posted inInternal Controls
The Case For (And Against) Continuous Auditing
The fast pace of business is pressuring internal auditors to speed up their audit cycles and processes, creating momentum for the increased use of “continuous auditing,” according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study, PwC’s annual “state of the industry” report on internal auditing, found that 81 percent of 392 companies surveyed say they either […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Tracking Performance Goals For Compliance
Companies have used “key performance indicators” for years to track data that can help measure progress toward whatever goals a company has. And as compliance and risk management have risen to be primary corporate goals, so have compliance- and risk-related KPIs. “In the last year, much more attention has been paid to how to operationalize […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Driving Internal Audit With Risk Assessments
For an internal audit function to be effective, its efforts must be risk-based and must meet the organization’s long-term assurance requirements. Members of the board, the audit committee and executive management look to internal audit to cover the entire spectrum of risks and issues facing the organization; that is, they expect internal audit to assess […]
