Preview

Sarbanes Oxley Memo

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1426 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sarbanes Oxley Memo
Ancher Public Trading
TO: Board of Directors
FROM: Learning Team A consultants
DATE: August 22, 2005
SUBJECT: Sarbanes-Oxley recommendations

As consultants for Ancher Public Trading (APT), Learning Team A would like to discuss the implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation. This memorandum provides a brief history of SOX¡¦s creation, explains the relationship amongst the FASB, SEC and PCAOB, describes the pros and cons of SOX, assesses the impacts of SOX, and lists ethical considerations of SOX.

History of SOX - the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is legislation in response to the high profile financial scandals, such as seen with Enron and WorldCom. The purpose of this act is to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent business practices. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act introduced stringent new rules to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws. Sarbanes-Oxley is not a set of business practices and does not specify how a business should store records; rather, Sarbanes-Oxley defines which records are to be stored and for how long.

A.) The relationship among the FASB, SEC and PCAOB
„« SOX is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC sets deadlines for compliance and publishes rules on requirements. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the department to which all publicly-traded companies, effective since 2004, are required to submit annual reports of the effectiveness of their internal accounting controls. The SEC has broad authority over all aspects of the securities industry. This includes the power to register, regulate, and oversee brokerage firms, transfer agents, and clearing agencies. Along with them, is the FASB.
„« The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), is a professional standards board created by accountants to establish Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP),



References: Barlas, D. (2004, December). The cost and benefits of SOX. Line56 ,Retrieved August 17, 2001. Retrieved on 8/19/2005, from http://ww.line56.com/articles. Hein, M. (2002). The Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 effects sweeping changes to the U.S. federal securities laws. Retrieved on August 21, 2005, from www. www.gtlaw.com. Hyatt, J. (2005). Birth of the ethics industry. Business Ethics Online, The magazine of corporate responsibility. Retrieved on 8/19/2005, from www.business-ethics.com. Johnson, C. (2005). Pros and cons of accounting rules weighed Sarbanes Oxley - more audits, accountability. San Francisco Chronicle on the Web. Retrieved August 17, 2001, from gin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/05/BUGJBE3DQ71.html. Leporte, G. (2007). Chief of the office of small business policy at the U.S. sSecurities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved on August 17th, 2005, from http://accounting.smartpros.com . Linsley, C. (2003). Auditing, risk management and a post Sarbanes-Oxley world. Review of Business. Solomon, Deborah. (March, 2005) Accounting Rule Exposes Problems But Draws Complaints About Costs. Wall Street Journal. Wallace, S. (2005). Only the ethical need apply. The Christian Science Monitor. March 30, 2005 edition.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The role of internal controls in complying with the SOX (2002) was simply to make the financial reporting consistent and transparent. . Most large corporations have a large compliance department that manages and oversees its finances. The accounting department falls within that category.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Acc291Individual Paper

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The biggest way that SOX impacted financial reporting is that it ended self-regulation of the public accounting industry. SOX achieved this by establishing a independent, non-profit organization called the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The PCAOB is given authority by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate and enforce the regulations and provisions of the accounting industry established by SOX. The mission of the PCAOB is to ““protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, fair, and independent audit reports” (PCAOB, Our Mission). Under the regulations of SOX and the PCAOB, it’s now required for all accounting firms to be registered. This makes it illegal for an unregistered firm to provide auditing services for publicly-traded companies. A few of the large roles of the PCAOB are to perform investigations of questionable accounting practices, hold disciplinary hearings, and to impose sanctions upon firms and individuals whose auditors are caught letting wrongdoings go unnoticed (Lasher, 2008, p. 190-191). Another way that SOX seeks to restore the integrity of financial statements is by removing a conflict of interest that existed during the 1990s. This conflict of interest existed when accounting firms that…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some of the key provisions in the SOX act are, the corporate management review the financial statements and certify…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Sarbanes Oxley Act

    • 3132 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Financial reporting has been dissected over and over again by legislation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hold the key to providing protection and integrity when companies are submitting their financial statements. Although their mission is to provide order and efficiency for financial markets, insidious plans are still developed by companies which ultimately result in turmoil to the economy. To provide a safeguard to investors, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed by congress in 2002, which was constructed because of fraudulent acts of well-known companies such as Enron. Before the SOX was inaugurated, two sets of accounting rules were used as guides for CPA firms.…

    • 3132 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 534 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, often abbreviated as SOX, is a legislative act passed by Congress in response to the Enron and WorldCom financial scandals. The primary purpose of SOX is to protect shareholders from errors or fraudulent reporting by the company they have invested in. The Sarbanes-Oxley act is enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a department dedicated to ensuring compliance to SOX from all firms, and is also responsible for revising provisions of the act in order to keep it current and up to date.…

    • 534 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Two key components of SOX are 1) a requirement to develop a Code of Ethics for senior financial officers, including enforcement mechanisms and 2) a requirement that outside auditors be rotated every five years (Orin, 2008). Other key components are the criteria for director independence, composition and responsibility of the audit, establishment of compensation and nominating committees, written codes of conduct and ethics, disclosures pertinent to controls and procedures, internal control over financial reporting, and whistle-blowing (Kessel,…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Acc 290 Week 5 Analysis

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the role of internal control in complying with (SOX) federal regulations have been revised to constrict responsibility dealing directly with directors, officers, and auditors. The revision obligates companies that are publicly traded to incorporate three precise reports within their annual financial reports to include the following:…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The SOX Act put clear limits and boundaries on the amount of non-audit fees that an accounting firm can earn from the same firm that it audits and it also required that audit partners rotate every 5 years to limit. These changes make it so one auditing firm does not grow too comfortable with one company, eliminating some potential for collusion. SOX called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to force companies to have audit committees that are…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is the most far-reaching change in organizational control and accounting regulations since the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The new law made securities fraud a criminal offense and made more strict penalties for corporate fraud. The law now requires top executives to sign off on their firms financial reports, and they risk fines and long jail sentences if they…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002(SOX which is also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act was enacted in July, 30, 2002 as a prompt response to the financial crimes scandals (Adelphia, Enron, WorldCom, Peregrime Systems , Arther Anderson and Tyco International). SOX establishes new, stricter standards for all US publicly traded companies. It does not apply to privately companies. The Act is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which deals with compliance, rules and requirements. The Act also created a new agency, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, which is in charge of overseeing, regulating, inspecting, and disciplining accounting firms in their roles as auditors of public companies. In my opinion, the benefits of the act cant be able to overcome the frustration and the cost of it.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    LAW 421 Week 3

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This article is about Congress a suggested revoke of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) of 2002. According to this article, the proposal came across as an excuse for some government officials to avoid topics that were is demand of resolution by the public. According to this article, “the SOA of 2002 is unnecessary, harmful, and inadequate” (Niskanen, 2005). Penalties under SOA involved jail time and loss of personal property (Niskanen, 2005).…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, the Sox act was established in 2002, as a response to the corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron and WorldCom who swindle their shareholder out of millions, the purpose for the act is to protect the rights of investors (Fraser & Simkons, 2010, p. 351). With the enactment of SOX, it improves the accurateness of corporates disclosures in order to be consistent with the securities laws. The SOX act officially and legally applies to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publicly traded companies (Fraser & Simkons, 2010).…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sarbanes Oxely

    • 1870 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Provisions of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) detail criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance, certification of internal auditing, and increased financial disclosure. It affects public U.S. companies and non-U.S. companies with a U.S. presence. SOX is all about corporate governance and financial disclosure.…

    • 1870 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 came into its own in the summer of 2002. The act got its name from Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. Essentially these two gentlemen were the founding fathers of this act. They set up the framework for compliance and regulatory controls. The Sox is formatted with 11 different titles, however for compliance regulations there are six important sections. These sections are; 302,401,404,409,802, and 906. Each one of these is the backbone of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    coca

    • 5015 Words
    • 21 Pages

    since the New Deal. (11). One of the first companies to become involved in the new act…

    • 5015 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays