How to motivate employers for SOx 2019



  • It is always a problem to archieve acceptance for SOx within a company. Most employers are irritated because they have to raise time although they are overcrowded with their normal work.
    So how can you arcieve the acceptance?



  • The only way to acheive acceptance is to ensure that Senior Management (e.g your CFO and CEO) communicate that it is the responsibility of process owners to ensure that their teams comply with SOX and not the responsibility of the SOX team. After all, those testing and documenting controls should be independent and cannot perform the controls themselves.



  • Yes, I even think that it’s up to the senior management to provide acceptance.
    I can imagine that that this problem is part of everyday life and not only a problem within my company.
    Are there any field reports how other companies cope with that?
    Is there any literature which deals with the whole issue ‘acceptance’?



  • I’ve never seen any literature, but I think that’s because Compliance with SOX is legally the responsibility of Senior Management/ Directors.
    We documented an internal charter for SOX which specified responsibilty.
    The issue of acceptance itself is more of a people management issue. There may be some literature out there on the internet somewhere…



  • Hi and welcome to the forums 🙂
    As shared, senior management support is always critical and needed for any endeavor to be successful.
    As SOX adds some to the cost of doing business, it is difficult to become ‘excited’ about implementing these regulatory programs. In fact, many most likely feel like we do in the USA in filling out tax forms to beat the upcoming deadline 😉
    With that said, there are negative consequences in not implementing SOX effectively or efficiently. If it’s not done properly, SOX can place significant overhead and burecracy on the business itself. Also, even recently Dell and Research in Motion, have had some difficulties with SEC filings (which can impact stock valuations with respect to public confidence – although in the 2 cases mentioned it’s most likely some technicalities).
    Thus, senior management should promote the need for SOX to be done right within the company, as they have to personally certify or sub-certify that SOX requirements have been fully satifised in their own company under SOX 302.
    Please paste to browser and add www
    sarbanes-oxley-101.com/SOX-302.htm
    The reasons noted above are just a few ideas of why it’s important for management to back the SOX effort and see that folks get the training and resources needed to do the job well. There are indeed business risks associated with doing otherwise.


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