Sarbanes-Oxley

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) has published a four volume set Internal Control over Financial Reporting – Guidance for Smaller Public Companies on using its Internal Controls – Integrated Framework to address the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) internal control provisions. This $75 set contains:

• 16 page Executive Summary,
• 116 page Guidance,
• 72 page Evaluation Tools, and
• 14 page Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

This final version is much better than the exposure draft which I criticized on my 14-Jan-06 blog. While several of my criticisms remain, the best outcome is the description of the
Twenty Internal Control Principles which are useful to businesses of all sizes. For SOX implementers from Operations, this document will be useful to better understand how to implement and maintain better controls over financial reporting.