Posts Tagged ‘SOX 404’
Notes on Future of SOX Compliance
This week I’m attending the annual user conference for Workiva, maker of software for internal audit and GRC teams. This means, of course, that artificial intelligence is all over the agenda and everyone is talking about how AI will transform internal control and SOX compliance. Let’s review the notes I took. One point that came…
Read MoreA Question on SOX Compliance Costs
Brace yourselves, SOX compliance professionals! A new government report finds that Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs are generally higher for large public companies, but more onerous for smaller ones — confirming what everyone in the field has already known for, like, the last 20 years. The report was released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last Friday.…
Read MoreDC Dithers Over PCAOB, State AI Laws
Time to revisit the policy-making nuttiness in Washington! Several measures relevant to compliance and audit professionals have gone through twists and turns lately as Republicans struggle to pass a budget bill that nobody likes, and we should ponder the potential implications for your compliance efforts back home. First (and somewhat to my surprise) Senate Republicans…
Read MoreAn Update on SOX Compliance Issues
The season for Sarbanes-Oxley audits is now mostly behind us, which means we’re moving into the season of webinars about this year’s SOX audits and lessons we can learn for future years. I attended one such webinar this week and am here to pass along my notes. The webinar itself was run by audit firm…
Read MoreAnother Example of Spreadsheet Risk
We missed this until now, but a Radical Compliance fan passed along this item for all you internal accounting control enthusiasts: a water development business in Colorado that recently had to correct its financial statements because of sloppy spreadsheet controls. The company in question is Pure Cycle Corp. ($PYCO), which sells water and wastewater services…
Read MoreOn Booting Chinese Firms Off U.S. Exchanges
Amid the many executive orders and memoranda President Trump has ballyhooed lately, let’s not forget this sneaky little number: a proposal that Chinese businesses listed on U.S. stock exchanges must submit to U.S. auditing standards. Right now, Chinese firms don’t have to do that. Rather, they can publish financial statements audited by Chinese audit firms;…
Read MoreSEC to Vote on 404(b) Exemptions
Well, here we go: the Securities and Exchange Commission will vote next week on a proposal to exempt companies with less than $100 million in annual revenue from audits of their internal control over financial reporting. The meeting will happen on March 11, and so far the internal control exemption is the only item on…
Read MoreMore on SOX 404(b) Compliance
SEC officials dropped a few more hints this week about their thinking on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, including when we’ll see the agency move to exempt more companies from Section 404(b) of the law — the provision that requires annual audits of a company’s internal control over financial reporting. Said hints came from Bill Hinman, director of…
Read MoreReport: SOX Compliance Still a Pain
Internal auditors might want to look at a new report on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance that paints a rather drab picture of things these days: SOX compliance duties crowding onto your plate, costs going up, and compliance teams adopting new technology at a pace less than people might like. The report, from the SOX Professionals Group and…
Read MoreSOX Compliance: Costs Down, Hours Up
Protiviti has released its annual study of SOX compliance costs — a mixed picture where compliance costs are drifting downward overall, even while the hours spent doing SOX compliance work are on their way up. The report polled nearly 700 finance or audit executives. Frankly, the statistics about SOX compliance costs don’t tell us much,…
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