US Consultant Rates 398



  • Looking for some guidelines as to the sort of rate a Project Manager level SoX Consultant could expect in the US on USDper day rate. Any ideas ?



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  • We pay our ‘Team Leaders’ in the USD75-USD80/hour range, which, I think is higher than average. We don’t pay OT rates but we try to keep hours to 8/day since we don’t want our people to burn out…this is a marathon, not a sprint.
    Contributing factors to our higher rate:

    1. CPA
    2. SOX experience on a variety of projects/clients.
    3. Prior CFO/Controller experience (which helps our clients in the remediation phase)
    4. Working knowledge of relational databases (which we use to organize the documentation rather than having information trapped in narratives and reports)–while the database structure is defined, each client is a little different so our Team Leaders need to be able to tweak the system if necessary. Also, we query our system to develop test plans (it’s more efficient to test all key controls that can be pulled/documented in one source, so, for example we query ‘all key controls that list document X as the evidence of the control’…the database kicks out a list of key controls for document X regardless of cycle/process and we incorporate the all tests of document X for all related key controls ONCE…which, is pretty slick but it takes database experience to run queries on the fly)
      I think that on average at the staff-leasing / ‘consulting’ firms pay their project managers USD40-USD65 per hour with time and one-half for hours in excess of 40/week. The average realized rate can approach our rate, but those people are often working 12 hours/day rather than our standard 8.
      Hope this helps. BTW if you’re looking for gigs as a supervisor, and have the experience listed above (especially DATABASE), let me know. We’re really heating up with the small issuers and we’re always on the lookout for the best people. We like to work smarter, not harder.


  • My own experience is a good 40% higher than the rates suggested by the previous poster. I suggest you shop around. A good SOX IT Project Mgr should pull in from USD80 to USD110/hour. In my view, a 40 hour week is not the norm. Beware the ‘professional day’.



  • The rates I listed are for SOX project managers. Just because they know something about databases doesn’t necessarily mean that they know IT general and application controls and can lead the IT auditors.
    Our IT Leaders DO get paid more in the range of USD110 to USD150/hour (they’re in great demand these days), but we’re able to charge higher rates for them, too.
    In re 40 hours/week: we pay and bill by the hour (it’s a variable cost so it doesn’t affect our contribution margins). If someone wants to make more money, they can by working longer. However, everyone that I know that has been working on SOX projects for a year or so, now, that has been working 12 hour days isn’t happy about it any more, even though it was a good deal for a while.
    It’s one thing to kill yourself for a busy season. It’s another thing to knock yourself out as a matter of course. Most of the SOX consultants left public accounting in the first place for that very reason: balancing quality of life v. more money.



  • The rates are very flexible depending on your experience and the skillset that is needed either by the client or the account firm that hired you. For IT professionals, those with years experienc, you can expect no less than USD75 dollars an hour. They are some consulting firms that offer benefits in additional to a very good hourly rate.
    Do your homework and review all offers to ensure that you are getting the best deal for you. There are plenty of IT sox jobs, so take your time and make as much money as you can.


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