On July 30, 2002, President Bush signed in to law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an act that has forever changed the internal auditing process in organizations. According to www.soxlaw.com, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 introduced major changes to corporate responsibility and to the regulation of financial disclosures, and introduced an opposition to corporate and accounting fraud. The Act also created the “Public Company Accounting Oversight Board” to supervise the activities of the auditing profession. The Act is named after its authors, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley.
The Act’s purpose, stated within the original document, is “To protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes.” The full text of the Act can be found by clicking here.
What this means for your organization
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is mandatory for all organizations, small and large, to comply. That means if you’re the owner of a business or organization and your office undergoes an annual audit, it’s in your best interest to be familiar with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, if you’re not already.
The Act means plenty of changes for both the auditor and the organization. It is designed to discourage corporate and accounting corruption, bring justice to offenders, and protect employees and shareholders of companies. While the Act introduces tougher auditing regulations, if you have an organized, controlled and efficient file storage system in place, you can eliminate the many potential headaches that come with the auditing process.
If you don’t have all of your business and financial documents scanned and secured digitally, and your organization’s physical documents stored securely, it’s time that you get organized and implement an appropriate storage system. R4 Services offers offsite record storage, as well as document scanning and imaging services, giving you secure, immediate and efficient access to your organization’s business documents.
If you’d like to learn more about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, speak with your organization’s accounting department or seek advice from a third-party professional accountant. Meanwhile, analyze your organization’s document storage system and consider whether it’s efficient enough for today’s increasingly demanding auditing procedures. If you’re in need of more streamlined document management, you can learn more at by clicking here.
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