Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Testing

Often, when the term Sarbanes-Oxley Act(SOX) comes up, individuals contemplate the testing processes that are required to be executed.  As evidenced in previous courses, many things must occur prior to even beginning to contemplate what, when and how to test.  Previous courses have discussed an overview of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation at a high level, SOX authoritative bodies including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the evolution of the Sarbanes-Oxley standards, performing a top down risk assessment (RA), evaluating entity level and soft controls, SOX sections 404, 302, 806, 902, and 906, and the connection to an internal control framework and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) 2013.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (also known as SOX) was enacted to safeguard shareholders, investors, and the general public against corporate accounting inaccuracies and fraudulent accounting activities. SOX compliance testing is a year-round effort for public companies.

This course focuses on the validation of control operations, which is executed through tests of controls.  Tests can be performed in multiple ways and will be dependent on the type of control.  In some instances, several tests may be performed on one control.

Information within this course comes from readily available public domain documents and is utilized by the trainer as a supplement for relaying the course content.

Note: The concepts outlined in this course are up to date and relevant in regards to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Although there have not been any changes in the legislative concepts of the law since it’s release in 2002, some aspects of executing the work have evolved. This speaker is preparing a series of courses titled “Sarbanes-Oxley 20 years later”. Those courses can be found individually on the platform and would be beneficial for anyone involved with compliance.

NOTE: The Instructor has created 5 new segments on Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later:

Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later: Accounting Risk Assessment Considerations
Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later: Sourcing Emerging Risks Part 1
Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later: Evaluating Testing Processes
Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later: Sourcing Emerging Risks Part 2
Sarbanes-Oxley Update – 20 Years Later: Examining Fraud Risks