Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a piece of legislation created for the purpose of protecting investors from accounting fraud, specifically those that are related to shares sold by publicly traded companies. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a deliberate attempt to mandate strict reforms with regards to how corporations made financial declarations. The law mandates increased vigilance with regards to disclosures related to the financial state of the company, particularly when it comes earnings and profitability.
One of the most significant feature of the law concerns compliance when it comes to electronic records. Aside from data stored and collected through Microsoft Office tools or its equivalent, email messages are also considered as evidence in the course of an investigation. Thus, corporations must be able to produce email messages as well as pertinent electronic data if requested by investigators.
Jubmo Systems & Solutions is experienced in helping businesses comply with the governing laws of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). While many companies struggle with these complicated pieces of legislation, our team has the experience to expedite regulatory compliance, simplify the implementation and reduce the cost and complexity of compliance and ongoing maintenance.
Jubmo Systems & Solutions Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) methodologies have been expertly developed by the same people who lead and manage our engagements. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) pieces of legislation were enacted, our team has developed, amended, and streamlined our methodologies to operate efficiently for clients of all industries and sizes. Jubmo Systems & Solutions is able to custom-build a valuable SOX solution for each client’s needs by adapting our methodologies to the company’s particular circumstances.
Our Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) SERVICES INCLUDE:
- Project planning and management
- Documentation of processes and controls, both business process and IT General Controls
- Identification of key controls and missing controls
- Testing and evaluation of the design effectiveness of controls
- Development and execution of test plans for operating effectiveness
- Optimization of controls by identifying and eliminating duplicate or redundant controls
- Paperless electronic documentation of risk control matrices, test plans and all testing evidence, including documentation of review and approvals of all e-documents
- Remediation and recommendations related to control gaps
- Monitoring and reporting project results
All the above services belongs to different phases during the implementation.
A. Design
Jumbo System & Solutions initial phase of SOX compliance includes initial project planning, analysis of the existing control environment and streamlining and automating current business processes to achieve compliance.
Jumbo System & Solutions covers SOX compliance that affects all departments within your organization including core accounting, human resources, payroll and finance.
B. Analysis
Jumbo System & Solutions works with process and control owners to evaluate current SOX practices, identify deficiencies and provide recommendations for remediation and process improvements.
In the initial phases of design and planning, your dedicated SOX consultants will develop prioritized project plans, which include:
- Resource Requirements
- Timeline Requirements
- Complete Budget Planning and Expectations
C. Identification
Our expert SOX consulting team will perform a discovery and analysis with regard to your current SOX infrastructure and associated business processes. We will work with key personnel in your organization who drive, manage, and perform the associated tasks and processes to identify:
- Current processes, policies, and procedures
- Desired additions, removals and changes to the current environment
- Gaps and areas in need of improvement
- Previous/current deficiencies as noted by internal/external audit activity
D. Testing and Reporting
In addition to business process and control analysis, we will work with related processes to be evaluated including workflow design, enterprise reporting and data management. We evaluate existing data models and systems and work with key personnel to identify reporting and data warehousing requirements. After the completion of our full analysis, we provide recommendations for improving the reporting infrastructure and current business processes
- Annual Financial systems disaster recovery testing
- Collaboration and cooperation with your internal audit team and external audit firm
- Remediation if required
- Ongoing support and environmental control of in-scope financial systems
- Recommendations for improvement of ongoing SOX efforts
- Assessment of existing control environment
- Updates to active control environment, policies and procedures for the current year including addressing any new applications or systems
- Updates to entity-level controls per external audit firm recommendations
- Recommendations for electronic HR and change management solutions
E. Remediation:
Jumbo Systems and Solutions will guide remediation efforts to ensure all IT controls and procedures are effective for the year. Remediation tasks include:
- Identifying ineffective and failed controls from initial testing
- Working with current IT staff and management to identify reasons for control failure
- Working with current IT staff and management to design updated control activities
- Implementing new control activities and update company SOX 404 documentation
- Designing test plan and test new controls to verify effectiveness during the implementation phase