Sarbanes Oxley Certification- CSOX

[awazharoon]

Hello,

I am appearing for CSOX exam which is the basic SOX exam mostly covering COSO framework, internal control, 302 and 404.

I wanted to know that I am giving that exam through Sarbanes-Oxley Certification Institute, whose website is [Deleted by Admin: no commercial links please]

Can anyone tell me if it is the official institute for SOX exam and if any one has given the exam before can guide me regarding the questions and answers....MCQs...

I will be very thankful.

[gmerkl]

There is no "official" exam or certification and no "official" institute that administers such an exam for people that work with Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance or with implementing, maintaining or auditing the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.

It will also depend on the accounting standard that the company uses. Companies that use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are no longer required to do a reconciliation from IFRS to US GAAP. On the contrary companies that either use US GAAP as their primary accounting standard or that still have to do a reconciliation from some national accounting standard to US GAAP, may be more interested in people with knowledge in US GAAP. The Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam that is administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which is the "official" organization of public accountants in the USA, both certifies knowledge in US GAAP and knowledge in auditing financial statements and auditing internal control over financial reporting.

An alternative is the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) exam, which is administered by the Institute of Internal Auditors. However, the CIA exam deals with auditing internal control systems in general and does not specialize in auditing internal control over financial reporting and it also does not specialize in teaching you US GAAP.

Most information about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act can be found in the Act itself and in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s rules that implement the Act and in the Auditing Standards of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on auditing internal control over financial reporting. All those sources are publicly available on the internet for free. In addition, several documents from the AICPA's Center for Audit Quality from the Big 4 accounting firms and from Protiviti are useful free sources.

[harrywaldron]

Hi - While the CSOX studies and certification process is valuable in gaining basic SOX knowledge, there is no official SOX certification as gmerkl noted. There are in fact "SOX certifications" offered by multiple organizations.

I'd recommend using the search button above and entering CERTIFICATION as a search term for some of our past discussions on this topic. While I feel it does have a little value for prospective employers, the CISSP or CISA are more prestigous because they are more intense and in-depth studies.