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If you have a
company that's gone public or will go public, the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act affects you. Named after Senator Paul
Sarbanes and Representative Michael G. Oxley, the act
(officially titled the Public Company Accounting Reform
and Investor Protection Act of 2002) became a law in
July 2002.
The act imposes strict financial reporting requirements
on publicly traded companies. Those companies must
implement, if not already in place, policies and
controls that demonstrate to investors the use of best
practices in managing financial systems as well as in
protecting corporate data and access to that data. |
IT systems are the
tool with which companies manage financial systems. That means,
given the law, systems are to be audited and companies must
remediate issues to meet the spirit of the law. Checking
compliance usually falls to third party auditors from
well-established accounting firms.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
is arranged into eleven titles. As far as compliance is
concerned, the most important sections within these are often
considered to be 302, 401, 404, 409, 802 and 906. A summary of
these titles are listed below:
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Sarbanes-Oxley Act Sections: |
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Sarbanes-Oxley Act Summary's |
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