From: CPA Practice Advisor
The annual Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Compliance Survey released by global consulting firm Protiviti reveals a new set of challenges facing public companies amid their compliance efforts. PCAOB audit requirements, new revenue recognition standards and cybersecurity concerns were cited by survey respondents as factors that will influence SOX compliance efforts in 2017. However, companies are seeing the benefits of their SOX compliance work, with 70 percent reporting that their internal control over financial reporting structure has improved and 50 percent realizing continued improvement of business processes.
The survey report, Fine-Tuning SOX Costs, Hours and Controls, is based on a survey completed by 468 chief audit executives, and internal audit and finance leaders and professionals in U.S.-based public companies in a wide range of industries in the first quarter of 2017. Seventy-two percent of respondents’ companies have annual revenues of $1 billion or more and 78 percent are beyond their second year of SOX compliance. Respondents looked back on their organizations’ SOX compliance efforts for the prior fiscal year – with attention to the factors potentially influencing observed changes in resources spent. The in-depth Protiviti report maps out the dynamic and evolving compliance landscape, 15 years after SOX was signed into legislation.
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