Hyperion Planner Application 743
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Should Hyperion Planner, a budgeting, planning and forecasting application, be audited because of the Sarbanes Oxley Act? It may not have a direct impact, but the organization does make significant financial decisions based on its reports.
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No,
Sox only asks you to to product reliable fiancial statements- i.e record your transactions accurately. It does not demand that you to make good financial decisions.
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While SOX does pertain to the financial reporting process it also pertains to maintaining an effective internal controls structure. With the prevelance of IT, that extends then to having an effective set of IT Controls as well. Certainly if this application resides on your network, interfaces to your other financial or ERP applications, etc. then there is most likely a set of control activities that pertain to it.
That said, it could also be determined that this application is not material to the business - but that should come from discussions with your auditors. My bet is that they would look at this at least from the IT Controls perspective as well as general controls.
But the other poster was also absolutely correct - unfortunately there is nothing in SOX about the quality fo management decision making. Stupid people will do stupid things.