Risk Management and Compliance
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Sarbanes
Oxley Act Compliance To preview all of our whitepapers click here. |
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Sarbanes-Oxley Act has many implications that will affect the way a company does business. Companies who are considering, or are in the process of, implementing an advanced analytical costing solution can better comply with sections 404 and 409 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act while deriving business value from their costing system. Companies can leverage this approach to turn a regulatory cost into a business gain that generates more value over time.
The SEC has yet to finalize the rules prescribed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. However, the purpose of these internal controls is quite clear: they must be designed to detect and deter fraud.
One of the biggest challenges faced by many companies has been reconciling their financial analysis systems with their operational analysis systems. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) systems have proven to be useful tools for corporate performance analysis and improving operational efficiencies.
Companies can implement Acorn's advanced costing solutions and satisfy critical elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley act in the process. Furthermore, Acorn's product strategy will continue to reduce the cycle time for the availability of critical analysis as it extends its product offerings from historical costing into real-time cost analysis and profit optimization. Acorn Systems solutions help companies achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in three main areas:
- Documentation. The implementation methodology documents the critical business processes, which then can be reported using standard product functionality. Any adjustments in the process that would constitute a material change in the business would be captured as the company maintained the cost models.
- Internal Controls. The bottom-up approach to costing builds in an additional method to determine revenue, revenue adjustments, capital costs, direct costs and actual operating costs. The system can automatically report variances between operational realities and financial reporting as part of the regular result validation process implemented by most companies. All variances are analyzed and explained prior to acceptance. In many instances, the implementation of an Acorn solution consolidates data from many disparate systems based on the origination of both cost and revenue and their assignment to actual business transactions.
- Real-Time Material Event Analysis. The real-time costing capabilities not only help companies detect material changes in business, but also help them to recover. Companies can quickly leverage current period cost analysis and capacity utilization data to actually recover from these changes.
Our customers consistently outperform their industries in efficiency and profitable growth. Acorn Systems has solutions for: