For all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered organisations, compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act presents significant challenges. Under the requirements of the Act, management must review, test and document internal controls over financial reporting, and in a very legal sense, accept full responsibility for the internal control structure of the company.
RSM Tenon can help you create a comprehensive project plan to address all the complexities of Section 404 and ensure your management Board meets their legal responsibilities with regard to financial control and reporting.
Sarbanes Oxley readiness relies on many factors and to be compliant with the regulatory requirements companies will have to ensure that they have the following in place:
- A robust and secure IT infrastructure
- Appropriately defined and verified controls
- Processes and policies to implement the controls
- Complete documentation that demonstrates compliance
- Employees who understand and follow the processes as ‘business as usual’
To respond to these requirements our Internal Audit specialists work with our Information Systems Assurance specialists. This team is able to provide combined expertise on control design and application along with a thorough understanding of regulatory requirements and their impact on data, systems and infrastructure. Our experience across a variety of regulated industries, and knowledge of risks and controls (including IT risks and controls), means that we are well placed to provide advice on governance and Sarbanes Oxley regulatory compliance issues. We provide a range of services to help organisations that have a need to achieve compliance including:
- Project management support
- Independent ‘readiness’ assessments
- Technical support – scoping, documentation, valuation and reporting
- Assessment of the control environment
- Direct assistance in the evaluation and remediation of controls
- Skilled resources so that you can release internal resources to concentrate on your business’s usual activities
Why would you need it?
- As a SEC registered organisation (inc subsidiaries of US domestic registrants or foreign private investors) you need to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and need some professional expertise to support you through this process
- You need independent advisory assistance due to a lack of in-house skills or resources or your initial attempts at documenting and evaluating controls have produced inconsistent, poor quality results
- You are looking for expert guidance on what ‘best practice’ approach can be taken to successfully deliver on S-Ox projects