We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The seventh available webinar entitled, "Internal Controls for the Fixed Asset Process" is available for download by clicking on this text.
This webinar is intended for listeners who would like to learn about internal controls & the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements surrounding book and tax issues within the Fixed Assets process. Listeners will learn about the best-practice steps within this process including asset tagging, depreciation, and recommendations regarding how to make fixed asset counts easy and efficient. We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The sixth available webinar entitled, "Internal Controls Non-Profits Should Consider" is available for download by clicking on this text.
This webinar is intended for non-profits who would like to understand internal controls and specifically, internal controls & the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements within the accounts receivables / revenue process. Non-profits are heavily regulated and understanding the control requirements when receiving cash or asset contributions is vital to maintaining this status.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
The PCAOB posted an update today on the following topic:
PCAOB posted to its Web site today Auditing Standard No. 7, Engagement Quality Review, and Conforming Amendment to PCAOB Interim Quality Control Standards Resulting from the Adoption of PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 7, which were approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jan. 15, 2010:
http://www.pcaobus.org/Rules/Rules_of_the_Board/Auditing_Standard_7.pdf
http://www.pcaobus.org/Rules/Rules_of_the_Board/All.pdf (pages 561-562)
Auditing Standard No. 7 and theConforming Amendment are effective for engagement quality reviews of audits and interim reviews for fiscal years beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2009.
Our busines partner, Burr Pilger Mayer, sent out a nice article today regarding contributions to Haitian Relief and their tax eligibility. Here is an excerpt from their article:
"On January 22, President Obama signed into law H.R. 4462, a bill that allows donors to accelerate the income tax benefits of charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
The bill allows individuals who make charitable contributions to aid Haitian earthquake victims to elect to claim an itemized charitable deduction on their 2009 tax return (instead of having to wait until next year to claim the deductions on their 2010 tax return). The election applies only to Haitian relief contributions made in cash after Jan. 11, 2010, and before Mar. 1, 2010."
For a the full article and a list of FAQs about the Act, click this link.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The fifth available webinar entitled, "How to Perform a Risk Assessment " is available for download
by clicking on this text.
This webinar is intended for people who would like to understand the steps required to complete a risk assessment of their company using their financial statements. This webinar could be useful for companies who are trying to become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant or simply for those companies who are audited. This webinar could be especially useful to any company that is audited as understanding the risk assessment process will allow you to help control the scope of your audit. Additionally, the listener will learn how to spot risky areas within their company.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The fourth available webinar entitled "Financial Close Best Practices" is available for download by clicking on this text.
This webinar is intended for people who would like to learn best practices around closing their books and preparing their close documentation in a way that will help expedite their external audit process. This webinar will also detail ways to improve efficiencies within the close process.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The third available webinar entitled, "SOX Basic®" is available for download
by clicking on this text.
This webinar is intended to detail how companies of less than 25 employees can become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant and mitigate segregation of duties issues with their current staff. Additionally, the listener will learn what to expect in terms of costs and duration for a typical implementation.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The second available webinar entitled, "Entity Level Best Practices" is available for download by clicking on this text.
This webinar details the requirements of the Entity Level Process as defined by The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and clearly identifies the documentation that should be expected from this process.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
We have pre-recorded our webinar series to allow interested parties to view them at their leisure. The first available webinar entitled "SOX Compliance Made Simple" is available for download by clicking on this text.
This webinar takes the listener through all of the steps required to become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. Additionally, the listener will learn what to expect in terms of costs and duration for a typical implementation.
We hope you find this information useful. Check back frequently as we are in the process of pre-recording webinars on a variety of topics.
One of the controls prescribed by The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), who provides the guidance for the Entity Level Process, relates to the use of a robust code of conduct.
The code of conduct should be presented to all existing employees and then given to any new employees as they are hired. The code of conduct can be used to mitigate risk to your company by requiring existing and new employees to attest to reading, understanding, and following the code. If there is a need to terminate someone for violation of the code, the attestation sheet may need to be used as evidence that the former employee knowingly violated company procedures and that the termination was valid. Or, by reading the code, employees may be more likely to adhere to company policy thereby mitigating issues that could have arisen if the code was not in place.
Now, most people do not have time to create a code of conduct or a corresponding attestation. We at Vibato have over 500+ documents such as this in our library and we are happy to share them with you. Feel free to send me an email or register via this link if you would like a copy of our code of conduct. I can be reached at tbockwoldt@vibato.com
On Jan. 20th, the bill was:
"Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs" as detailed from OpenCongress.org.
This did not change the visual status of the bill's progess into becoming law; it just means that the bill is preparing to be voted upon:
Terry Connelly, Dean of Golden Gate University's Ageno School of Business (my alma mater), discusses the United States response to the accounting and finance scandals of the early 2000's in two videos that are available on YouTube. The videos are titled "What Sarbanes-Oxley Did and Didn't Cure in our Financial System" and is available via these links in two parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3vDlWmTlQs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilbok5R1Bug&feature=related
They are very good overviews and worth watching (only about 10 minutes each). Connelly holds a BA from The Catholic University of America and a law degree from NYU School of Law.
Omni Bio Pharmaceutical, Inc, located in Denver, CO and referred to Vibato from Hein & Associates, is a small company in terms of overall employee size but is still an accelerated filer and will be subjected to the 404(b) requirements in their coming year-end audit. Because of their unusual business size relative to their nearly $300M market cap, Omni was faced with the challenge of finding the right Sarbanes-Oxley service provider who would understand the needs of a company with a large market cap and small overall employee size:
"We didn't have a dedicated budget to complete our SOX compliance but as a small public company that was going to be an accelerated filer by our next year-end, we knew we had to figure something out quickly that would allow us to comply with the full SOX 404 requirements. Vibato had a solution for us that cost less than $6,000, which was significantly less expensive than anything else we had seen in the market. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a cost-effective and scalable solution." Bob Ogden, CFO, Omni Bio Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Vibato is pleased to announce yet another win of an accelerated filer who is looking to utilize the SOX Compliance Made Simple® software toolset to streamline their existing internal controls infrastructure and reduce the amount of time and cost associated with the maintenance of their Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Our new client, a 100+ year-old technology-based company out of Japan, has selected SOX Compliance Made Simple for its Microsoft-based ease of use that does not require their team members to install or learn a new application just to manage their Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. We are delighted to welcome this new client to the Vibato family of products!
Vibato is delighted to announce yet another win from the Green-tech community! Vibato seems to be cornering the Green-tech market for Sarbanes-Oxley implementations which suits us just fine. Our new client is out of the Los Angeles area and specializes in proprietary starch-based, renewable plastics created from breakthrough technology. This new client has engaged us to implement our SOX Basic® product, which is suited for smaller companies who want a robust internal control infrastructure that is tailored for their needs.
According to Open Congress.org, only 33% of visitors to the site support the H.R.4173 - Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 which includes the permanent reprieve of Section 404(b) for non-accelerated filers. Again, non-accelerated filers have a market cap of less than $75M and have been granted a reprieve on Section 404(b) since SOX was adopted. In November, 2009, the SEC announced that non-accelerated filers will have to comply with Section 404(b) by June 15, 2010 and H.R. 4173 was put through as an effort to permanently repeal the need for non-accelerated filers to have to comply. Open Congress.org has some nice visual displays detailing the progress of the bill.
Here is a sample:
Vibato representatives will be in Salt Lake City, Utah taking meetings from January 27 to February 4th at the Hotel Monaco on 15 West 200 South. Feel free to give us a call at (707) 477-0008 or (510) 910-1604.
Vibato representatives will be taking meetings in Chicago, Illinois on January 14
th & 15
th at the Ritz-Carlton on 160 East Pearson Street at Water Tower Place. Feel free to give us a call at (707) 477-0008 or (510) 910-1604.
Are audits a waste of time & money without Sarbanes-Oxley? I would never have questioned the value of an audit without SOX until I saw Grant Thornton's comments today.
Read the article via this link.
The article by Sarah Johnson from CFO.com is appalling. A good audit consists of many things including reperforming reconciliations, tying those back to the trial balance & bank recons, and verifying the support for legitimacy and accuracy. This is the same for journal entries; they must all be supported and tie to the general ledger. If something looks suspicious, you investigate. If something doesn't tie, you investigate. That is the role of an auditor. How could Grant Thornton not take any responsibility here? $31M in fraud and they saw nothing. Internal controls could have helped the company for sure but that does not mean that an audit is good for nothing and it was just because 404(b) hadn't kicked in that made the fraud possible. Or, perhaps I am incorrect. Perhaps the only time an audit has value is when it includes a review of internal controls i.e., a SOX audit.
Follow the progress of the omnibus financial reform bill (H.R. 4173) or the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" via this link:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:1:./temp/~bdmVyo:@@@S|/bss/111search.html||
Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski attempted to push through an amendment to the omnibus financial reform bill (H.R. 4173) or the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" on December 10, 2009 to strike the provisions within H.R. 4173 that would exempt non-accelerated filers from Section 404(b). Kanjorski's amendment was voted down, 153 - 271. As is stands, the bill will go to the Senate for final vote. The vote has yet to be scheduled.
The omnibus financial reform bill (H.R. 4173) or the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" was passed by the House of Representatives via a vote of 223-202 on December 11, 2009. This bill would seek to permanently grant a 404(b) reprieve for non-accelerated filers (those with a market capitalization below $75 million). The bill must now be passed by the Senate to be put into law and their vote has yet to be scheduled. As it stands now, non-accelerated filers must comply with 404(b) by June 15, 2010; 404(a) has been in effect since 2007 and is not in debate.
To be clear, there are two parts to SOX that should be understood to properly understand how this bill may impact the public market:
SOX 404(a): Management Attestation
- Effective December 15, 2007:
- Requires the management of a public company to assess the effectiveness of the company's internal controls
- Requires management to include in the company's annual report the conclusion of that assessment
SOX 404(b): Auditor Attestation
- Effective June 15, 2010:
- Management's external auditor's must review management's assessment and complete their own assessment and publish their results
Six Sigma should be utilized in all SOX or process reengineering implementations. Think of it this way, just as you would be expected to be graded when you go to school, you should also expect to grade your process reengineering effort which means you should set expectations ahead of time and then measure the output against these expectations. If an ROI cannot be determined prior to starting the implementation, then perhaps the implementation direction is not clear or perhaps the project is not even necessary. Vibato uses Six Sigma methodologies in all of our products and implementations. Learn more about Six Sigma via this link:
http://www.sixsig.info/six-sigma/category/sarbox-compliance/
Todd Thomas from TheStreet.com, published a number of Vibato's New Year's Resolutions in his "CEO Special Report," which he authored as a special edition of IMPACT Consulting and Development's "Leadership Matters" newsletter.
His report, titled "TheStreet com CEO Special Report" is available via this link.
Lora Bentley of IT Business Edge published the remainder of our New Year's Resolutions. The article can be read via this list:
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/vibatos-simple-sarbox-new-years-tips/?cs=38476