Sarbanes-Oxley

Is your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance giving you a headache, taking too much time of key staff?
Public or thinking about going public?

• SOX documentation hasn’t been significantly revised since implementation.
• Annual controls testing takes way too much of everyone’s time.
• New business areas need SOX documentation, but the operational staff don’t have the time or experience to create narratives.
• There are still too many key controls

If this sounds like your business, I can help.

Why can I get this done when other Orange County Sarbanes-Oxley consultants have not delivered?

Experience I have 14 years of Big 4 auditing experience and another 6 years as a controller. I start from an understanding of the business operations and the accounting implications to create or evaluate narratives that fully integrate the operational controls in the business and focus on the real risk areas.

Communication I actually enjoy talking to the operational managers; working together we create narratives that are streamlined and understandable. When there are control failures, I work with the operational staff to understand the root cause; I often find that the wrong procedure has been identified as the key control.

Speed I have spent years in auditing with deadlines and time budgets, I am very practiced at quickly developing an understanding of the business. That coupled with experience in a variety of industries and companies, enables me to get it done faster than most.

How I Can Help

Update narratives/streamline controls I review some or all of your narratives to simplify the narratives and reduce the number of key controls.  I have been able to help clients reduce the number of key controls by as much as 10% .

Create initial documentation For those planning on going public, I offer assistance in creating some or all of the required business process narratives.  I interview the process owners to understand their procedures and controls, I then create the draft narratives that the business owners  review and approve. In my experience, this saves significant resources because the business owner spends less time on SOX and more on operations and the resulting narratives are more streamlined and focused on higher risk areas.  I can also create the required test plans for management’s annual assessment.

Project manage outsourced annual assessment If you choose to outsource your annual 404 assessment, I offer my services in project management, including the management of all control failures, corrective actions and evaluation.