The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit: Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors

How can companies easily comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404?

Looking for a highly accessible, simple, and practical approach to help your company easily comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404? The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit, Second Edition presents a detailed road map to help companies not only streamline their compliance process, but also make the process manageable and repeatable year after year.

A must-read for all CFOs, internal auditors, CPA firms, and independent auditors involved in the compliance process, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit, Second Edition is packed with work programs, audit checklists, and examples that readers can tailor to meet their own unique needs.

Author and consultant Michael Ramos updates you on everything 404, including:

• Detailed implementation practice aids for Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance based on new rules set by PCAOB and SEC
• The best practices in the rapidly changing field of SOX 404 compliance
• A new SEC appendix containing immediately useful information
• New guidance for small businesses

Fully updated and revised, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit, Second Edition embraces the common approaches and methodologies that have proven successful in the new world of Sarbanes-Oxley internal control testing and reporting. Featuring a useful CD-ROM that contains all of the tools from the book, this timely workbook includes best practices that will benefit anyone who participates in the planning or performance of the effectiveness of internal control.

Every company that has successfully completed its first year of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance now has to establish an ongoing process to maintain their compliance. New challenges companies have to address going forward are:

• How to create a methodology that is repeatable and easily taught to new employees who were not part of the original core project team
• How to make the assessment of internal control more effective and less of a drain on already limited resources

The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit is a wellspring of detailed implementation practice aids to help companies continue to meet the complex internal control reporting requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Providing a road map through the entire compliance process, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit offers clear instructions to help readers gather and assess information in order to form logical, supportable conclusions about internal control effectiveness. In addition, it lays out a very involved testing process that engages the project team with operating personnel to discover "what really goes on" at the company. To ensure successful discovery, this book helps the project team be highly active by encouraging them to ask multiple questions, make observations, and corroborate single instances of control compliance until a clear pattern emerges.

In addition to a wealth of forms and checklists, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit features a helpful CD-ROM containing all the tools in the book, including a collection of detailed work programs, audit checklists, and examples that can be tailored to meet the needs of any practice and client.

By refining the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process and creating an integrated tool set, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit helps make the compliance process repeatable, more efficient, and more effective.

MICHAEL RAMOS, CPA, is a consultant and professional writer specializing in auditing matters. He has written numerous successful publications, including nonauthoritative practice aids, implementation guides, and authoritative American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Audit and Accounting Guides. In addition to text-based products, he has also authored a variety of training programs, including computer-based multimedia training and audio/video scripts. This is his third book on the internal control requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and a follow-up to his bestselling How to Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 (published by Wiley).