What to Do With a Sarbanes Oxley Representative

Having worked closely with the financial data for a publicly traded company, I have experienced first hand the requirements placed upon corporations through the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). Each reporting quarter, I would have many private interviews with our Sarbanes Oxley representative. He would ask me questions about every procedure I used to monitor and collect invoice payments. These questions would vary from general, high level questions regarding client payment history, to actual detailed steps for writing a client email asking them for payment. But most of my involvement regarding our quarterly SOX investigations involved explaining numbers contained within our financial spreadsheets and what was done to keep these spreadsheets secure. Lately, SOX has been more involved in ensuring proper internal control with sensitive financial data contained on a spreadsheet. They want to know exactly who has access to sensitive data and how this data is shared among the appropriate employees. Demonstrating a sound procedure that meets SOX requirements can be challenging for employers. For this reason, many companies turn to software applications to monitor the electronic location of all sensitive, corporate information. One of the leading compliance software manufacturers is Nextpage. They have created a Document Retention program that provides the user a simple way locate sensitive documents stored on computer desktops, jump drives, email attachments, and central servers. Through NextPage& 8217;s system, the user will have access to many needed tools to keep control on any document. The Document Retention software is easy to use and begins working once the program is installed on the user& 8217;s computer. After installation, it will begin to track documents, letting you know where each version is location, when each version was reviewed, and which versions have been retained or purged. At any time during the lifecycle of the document, you can upload any version to a centralized server and thus archive it according to SOX requirements. After a document lifecycle is completed, a manager can then send out a request to purge all documents not saved on the central server. This type of software would have been extremely helpful in answering the many SOX questions regarding our handling of the invoicing spreadsheet. Instead of easily displaying on a user-friendly interface the lifecycle of each spreadsheet, I had to describe in great detail each step used to complete the spreadsheet project. After my multiple interactions with SOX representatives, I can admit they will pursue any area of a company& 8217;s financial procedures that they feel may not be compliant. Why not make things easy and demonstrate through a high tech program that your company easily meets the SOX, document control requirements? Ryan Knapp is an Internet Marketing Consultant for 10x Marketing. For more information regarding compliance software solutions, contact www.nextpage.com.



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