Making Sure You’re SOX Compliant

Published on: 13 November 2021 Last Updated on: 18 January 2025

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is a federal law established in 2002 to combat corporate fraud. The act requires public companies, private companies with more than 500 employees, and bank holding companies to maintain adequate internal control systems. If you are one of these organizations, then this blog post will go over the SOX requirements to help you become SOX compliant!

What is SOX Compliance?

SOX compliance is a set of regulations created to protect investors and the financial markets from fraudulent activities. The act requires organizations listed above to test their internal controls through an independent third party, such as AICPA or COSO. In addition, they must document all findings in detail and implement changes that will correct any deficiencies.

The Four Areas of Compliance Are:

Financial reporting (SOX 404)– This section requires businesses to have adequate internal financial controls.
Internal control structure (SOX 302)– This area ensures your business has procedures and documentation for employees responsible for recording transactions, processing payments, and monitoring risk.
Compliance with laws/regulations (SOX 404)– SOX compliance provides a set of procedures to help monitor compliance with laws and regulations.
Internal audit function (SOX 404)– This area ensures your business has an internal auditing system in place that reviews financial transactions, lines of authority, IT security controls, physical access, etc.

Why it’s Important to be Compliant

The consequences for failing to become compliant with SOX can be serious. Not only can your organization face fines and penalties up to USD 15 million, but you might even cause a financial crisis in the market! The SEC has increased their monitoring of companies required to comply with these regulations and will take immediate action when they see any signs of misconduct.

How to Stay Compliant

There are five ways that you can maintain compliance with SOX. You must have a clear understanding of the risks facing your organization, establish internal controls to minimize those risks, create an environment for open communication between management and employees, avoid conflicts of interest within the company, and finally document all policies following these rules.

If you need help making sure you’re SOX compliant, then don’t hesitate to contact our compliance experts!

Tools for Staying Compliant

If you are looking for a way to simplify being SOX compliant, hire experts to help you. You can find a wide range of companies specializing in SOX compliance, and they will save you from having to deal with headaches. In addition, most experts can help you meet all your deadlines for each stage of the audit process!

Resources for Staying Compliant

The SEC has an excellent FAQ section that will give you the answers to any questions about SOX compliance and what it means for your organization. The COSO ERM Framework is another great tool that can be used by managers who want a better understanding of how to create an efficient company.

Ensuring that your company is SOX compliant can seem like more than you want to take on, but it’s not as difficult or overwhelming as some might make it out to be. If you are having trouble understanding the requirements of this legislation, talk with us about how our team can help. We have a wealth of knowledge and experience in dealing with complex compliance issues for small businesses just like yours!

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Self-Improvement Tips For Managers

Improving yourself like training in time management can help you lead the team better and help everyone meet goals better. Hence every job type is different, so the self-improvement tips are also different for everyone. But some of the specific job types require more self-improvement on the basis of the job categories. 4 Self Improvement Tips Which Every New Managers Should Maintain: Every manager should maintain specific tips for self-improvement. Hence when you are in the leading position, you have to be a few steps ahead of the rest of the company people. Along with your technical knowledge, managerial skills and team management skills are very essential for every individual new manager. Here are the four tips. Read them and know what self-improvement tips you have to maintain. 1. Take Time to Develop Your Professional Skills A manager needs a different set of skills than an employee does. For example, they should have strong people skills and the know-how to delegate work. One way of furthering your professional skills is by getting your degree in a business-related field. For individual self-improvement, professional skills enhancements are essential. In professional skills, the soft skills and the team management skills are the two most important parts. Even for the professional skill build-ups, the professional courses are also going to be a good booster for your career. You will be able to put new skills to work in a classroom setting, and you can then apply them to your job. While college can be expensive, you may want to consider taking out a student loan to get help covering costs of attending. 2. Build Strong Communication Ensure your employees know that communication goes both ways. While you may be giving directives, you should also ensure you have a good back and forth with each employee. Make sure everyone knows you are there to listen to concerns. Being a good listener means you take feedback and other communications into account when making decisions. In the self-improvement techniques, the communications and the leadership quality building up is a very necessary step which you can make. You can enhance communication among your team members by organizing team-building activities like virtual happy hour games, even from the comfort of your own home. These engaging and interactive experiences promote collaboration, problem-solving, and practical communication skills, allowing your team to bond and work more cohesively, regardless of location. Creating rapport and building trust will help you communicate effectively. Make sure you don’t evade facts or sugarcoat anything, as this shows you respect them enough to give them relevant information, whether or not it is good. Setting an example of transparent communication will encourage the team to do the same thing for you. This allows everyone to be on the same page. 3. Identify Talents Being able to strategically delegate tasks to your subordinates allows you to give tasks to those who are best suited for the work. You have to be able to understand the pool of talent your team holds. Not everyone is strong in every area, so take some time to identify each person’s strengths so you can organize the workflow and tasks as such. Employees will also be more engaged when they are able to put their strengths to work and do something they enjoy. Don't force someone into a role. Instead, allow individuals to perform the tasks they do well. Related: 5 Tips For Employee Retention For Any Organization 4. Don’t Be Afraid to Take Responsibility Some managers do not know how to take responsibility for their actions, especially when things are not going according to plan. This is a common mistake for new managers, but even seasoned ones may find it challenging to step up and admit they made a mistake. However, avoiding responsibility will only damage your standing as a leader of the team. No matter what needed up happening, the first step is to admit you did wrong and determine how to mitigate the situation. If your employees are responsible for their missteps, you should be held to the same standard. Even if the whole team messed up, it is your responsibility as a leader to step up and take responsibility for the issue. This will strengthen your relationship with the team, as you earn respect for doing this. Wrapping It Up: All of these four tips for self-improvement can apply to anyone. And any managers who want to be successful in any field can use these tips to progress in their field. So keep using the tips and make sure you are using your talents in the right ways. Are you thinking of advancing your career in the managerial field? Share your secret tips with us through the comment sections. Read ALso: 4 Business Leadership Skills for Business Success How to Get Your Employees to Use a Time Clock App Tips for Building Relationships with Senior Managers

How a Virtual Assistant Is Beneficial to Businesses

Are you trying to scale your business, but don’t have the proper help? Or on the flip side, are you scaling too quickly without the proper infrastructure in place? Adding a virtual assistant to your team can be a better answer to your scaling issues by taking administrative tasks off your plate, saving on operational costs, and much more. Let’s take a deeper look at how virtual assistants are beneficial to businesses. Remove Yourself From Admin Tasks While administrative tasks are crucial and inevitable in your business, they can also easily be taken over by a qualified virtual assistant. As a business owner or department manager, your time should be spent on the most important aspects of the business. Allowing a VA to take over mundane, repetitive tasks will let you focus on scaling your business, building up your marketing efforts, improving processes, and maintaining quality output. Virtual assistants can take over tasks like scheduling meetings, data entry, bookkeeping, customer service, and monitoring your email inbox. Save on Operational Costs Hiring a virtual assistant means you won’t have to worry about providing equipment or finding available office space for them, which saves on your operational costs. VAs also only get paid when they are working on an assigned task, which means you can hire one on a part-time basis or a few times a week — whichever you think is necessary for your business. Hiring a virtual assistant will also save you money because you won’t have to pay an employee a full-time salary, which includes all the benefits that come with that position, like additional taxes, PTO, benefits, and severance pay. Increased Scalability Adding a virtual assistant to your team of experts allows you to scale your operations with fewer potential risks. Rather than hiring full-time employees, you can hire virtual assistants to test out the processes you built out after removing yourself from the day-to-day tasks. Having a new set of eyes on your operations and processes will help you refine them and note where issues occur. While you might think you have things running smoothly, a virtual assistant can help spot inefficiencies. By using a virtual assistant to increase scalability, you can manage your volume of output based on demand. Then, the money you save on hiring employees can be reinvested into your business. Adding Skilled Professionals Adding a virtual assistant to your staff also means you can choose to hire someone with a unique specialization that your company lacks. For instance, virtual assistants commonly have specialized skills in the areas of customer service, tech, lead generation, marketing, and administration. You have the freedom to hire someone based on the skills you want in your assistant. Hiring someone who is specialized in the right field allows you to rest easy knowing that whatever task you give them will be handled without error — or at least, very limited errors. You can also teach your virtual assistant the skills they need to accomplish their task, as they are usually fast learners who are used to jumping right into an organization. How To Train A Virtual Assistant Better! Since you won’t be able to train them on location (because most of them will be working remotely) Training a virtual assistant (VA) can be tricky, especially since they’re not right there in your office. But with the right approach, you can still get them up to speed and make sure they’re on point with what your business needs. Here’s how you can do it: Set Clear Expectations First, it’s important to communicate what you want clearly. Ensure that you outline the tasks you need your VA to handle, the standards you expect, and any specific workflows they should follow. Start with giving them a detailed job description and a list of tools or software they’ll need to use. This way, they’ll have a better understanding of their role, and it reduces the chances of things getting lost in translation. Provide Comprehensive Training Resources To make sure your VA can handle their responsibilities, you should offer them some solid training resources. This could be things like video tutorials, written guides, or maybe even access to online courses that are relevant to what they’ll be doing. Screen recording software can be super helpful here. For starters, it lets you create step-by-step guides that show them exactly how your processes work. Trust me, this visual approach is a lifesaver, especially for more complicated stuff. Use Project Management Tools The pandemic did give us a plethora of project management tools. So, why not take advantage of these tools, to organize the tasks better. Project management tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com are great for keeping track of what your VA is up to. They let you assign tasks, set deadlines, and check in on progress to make sure everything’s moving along as it should. Plus, they give you a place to communicate, where you can leave feedback or ask for updates whenever you need them. Regular Check-Ins Having regular check-ins with your VA is key to keeping everything running smoothly. Set up weekly or bi-weekly meetings to go over what they’ve done, talk through any issues, and give feedback. These meetings also give you a chance to tweak their workload or responsibilities if needed. Hire Your Virtual Assistant Today Ultimately, hiring a virtual assistant will make your life easier while growing your business. You can bring on new talent to save on operating costs, increase your team’s knowledge base and skillset, and remove yourself from mundane day-to-day tasks. Hiring a virtual assistant will allow you to focus on improving your process so you can quickly scale your business. Read Also: Alexa Voice Assistant: Why It Succeeds Where Others Fall Balancing the Books with Outsourcing – Virtual Receptionists

Main Factors that Affect Trading Decisions

The ebb and flow of the markets provide many opportunities to make money. The goal is to consistently generate gains and limit your losses. There are several factors that affect trading decisions. New information, which could include economic data, or an earnings release will change the course of the markets. While there are a number of factors that will alter the price of an asset in the long term, the most common driver of short-term changes is sentiment. Market Sentiment: The price of security is based on supply and demand. At each price level, the market is attempting to determine if supply and demand are in balance. When supply and demand are at equilibrium, sentiment becomes neutral and prices trade sideways. Sentiment will determine how a market reacts to any given price level. Measuring sentiment is an important tool that can help you determine if prices are at equilibrium or not. Many investors measure sentiment using a technical indicator such as the relative strength index, but you can also use market psychology to determine how others feel about the future direction of a security or currency pair. How to Measure Sentiment: Sentiment analysis uses several factors. This could include economic events, political events, as well as changes to the price of a security. Sentiment includes both fundamental and technical issues and measures how the market feels toward a currency pair or commodity. One way that investors measure the fear in the US stock market is to evaluate the levels of the VIX volatility index. Any volatility index on a specific asset would measure the same market psychology. When the VIX rises, options traders are more concerned about large moves due to fear. When the VIX declines complacency sets in. New Information: There is a prevailing thought that all the available information is incorporated into the price of a security. Since the markets are efficient, any new information is immediately priced into security. New information usually changes the price but might not change whether security will trade into a different range. When prices move from one range to another, there is generally a shift in sentiment which could further induce the price to continue to trend. New information is either expected or unexpected. Expected news can be priced in or not. For example, ahead of an economic release, economists will estimate the outcome. The average estimate is likely priced into every security. If the actual release is different from the expected release, the value of the security will change to reflect the new information. While the moves following expected news can be volatile, the fact that news is expected allows traders to be ready. Unexpected news can cause significant volatility. For example, if a war breaks out or currency is devalued, the reverberations can be extreme. When you trade the markets, you need to be aware that you are taking a risk, and you need to be aware of how to handle unexpected news if it arises. Read Also: How To Open A Forex Account And Start Trading Forex Stock 7 Things You Must Know About Dow Jones Stock Market Chart

Making Sure You’re SOX Compliant

What is SOX Compliance?

The Four Areas of Compliance Are:

Why it’s Important to be Compliant

How to Stay Compliant

Tools for Staying Compliant

Resources for Staying Compliant

Lucrative Business Ideas to start Near Water Bodies

Choosing The Best Lifting Gantry For Your Factory Needs

Content Rally

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

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Self-Improvement Tips For Managers

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Main Factors that Affect Trading Decisions

Making Sure You’re SOX Compliant

What is SOX Compliance?

The Four Areas of Compliance Are:

Why it’s Important to be Compliant

How to Stay Compliant

Tools for Staying Compliant

Resources for Staying Compliant

Share this Article

Lucrative Business Ideas to start Near Water Bodies

Choosing The Best Lifting Gantry For Your Factory Needs

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

Leave a Reply

Popular

Follow Us

Recent

Related