SOX Compliance – For Precise Record Keeping in Firms

The SOX compliance is obligatory for all public firms, managements and public accounting companies for the precision in the record keeping procedure so as to avoid swindling monetary activities. The Sarbanese-Oxley Act, commonly referred to as Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act or as the Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act, is also popularly referred to as the SOX Act. This U S Federal law, named after the U.S. legislator Paul Sarbanese and U.S. representative MichaelG. Oxley, was enacted in the year 2002.

The SOX act gave more powers to the external auditors who appraise the accuracy of the fiscal statements of the organization. It imposes severe penalties for any type of fraudulent activities within the framework of record keeping system of the corporate. It is currently obligatory under the SOX Act for each top management personnel to individually certify the accuracy of their financial data. This act also protects and controls the nature of information distributed by the corporate concerning the purchasers or shareholders, with a view to shield their identity.

SOX training is mandatory for each company to retain information on all vital new rules laid down in the SOX Act. The noncompliance of any of the provisions relating to SOX compliance will lead to severe penalties.

SOX regulations render it mandatory for an organization to conduct audits by SOX compliance agencies. They monitor the record keeping policies of both the accounting and IT departments of the corporate. The monetary transactions and account modifications need to be submitted by the corporate. The requested information need to be submitted within the timeframe as advised by the competent authority. Any lapse or incompletion of the information requested by the agency for audits can cause non-compliance of the SOX Act, which is a serious offence as per law.

SOX compliance requirements involve data storage, which is primarily carried out by the or the IT department of the organization. The IT departments and their protocols underwent an intensive renovation due to the advent of SOX Act. In line with the SOX compliance requirement, the storage and recall of every kind of information ought to be done by the IT department of, thereby making them the gatekeepers of business information. Any data relating to the corporate needs to be held for a period of a minimum of 5 years, enabling future reference and investigations, as required. The enforcement of record keeping function reduced the chances of fraudulent transactions and scams.

Several SOX compliance-training programs are in the offing, at the end of which SOX compliance-training certificates are given. This course intends to give necessary data for acquiring SOX compliance in an organization.

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