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Since the United States introduced
the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002 a whole new industry
has opened up both inside the organisation and externally
within the profession.
Section 404 of the Act requires each annual report of
a public company to include a report by management on
the company's internal control over financial reporting.
This report should contain:
- A statement of management's responsibility
for establishing and maintaining adequate internal
control over financial reporting for the company.
- A statement identifying the framework
used by management to evaluate the effectiveness of
internal control.
- Management's assessment of the
effectiveness of internal control as of the end of
the company's most recent financial year.
- Disclosure of material weaknesses
(A material weakness is a significant deficiency or
combination of significant deficiencies that result
in more than a remote likelihood that a material misstatement
will not be prevented or detected.).
- A statement that it's auditor
has issued an attestation report on management's assessment.
SOX 404 also requires the company's
auditor to attest to, and report on, management's assessment
of the effectiveness of the company's internal control
over financial reporting.
Any company having a listing on a US stock market must
comply with the provisions of the Act. The penalties
for failure are severe and include hefty fines and/or
imprisonment for the organisations senior executives.
Compliance is an arduous and costly
process and encompasses the whole organisation.
Controls on all internal processes
should be written down and tested. They should be in
line with the framework set down by Section 404 of the
Act. Where they are found to be inadequate remedial
action should be implemented. The process is ongoing
and requires attestation by senior management and auditing
by a recognised external organisation.
So anyone considering a role
in this area should be interested in the business process,
be logical and methodical, a good communicator and most
importantly have a sense of humour.
Below is a listing of typical
jobs that newly qualified accountants will be considering:
click view
for details
Consultancy Jobs
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| Corporate Finance
Jobs |
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| Financial Control
Jobs |
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| Fund Accounting
Jobs |
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| Industry and Commerce |
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| Internal Audit
Jobs |
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| Private Equity
and Venture Capital Jobs |
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| Professional Practice
Jobs |
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| SOX Jobs |
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| Tax Accounting
Jobs |
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