Financial Policies and Procedures Manual Simplifies Financial Compliance
Question of the month: How do policies and procedures fulfill requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial regulations?
The highlight this month was the release of the Finance Policies, Procedures & Forms manual. Our newest product is the result of a nearly year long effort of intensive research, writing, editing and reviewing. The Finance Manual was finally ready for production and shipping last week. We are very pleased with this new product, and the response from our customers has been tremendous.
The Finance Policies, Procedures & Forms Manual is primarily designed to assist companies of all sizes and types establish strong internal controls to simplify compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial regulations. An important benefit, however, of well-designed internal controls is the opportunity to measure and improve process effectiveness.
Improving Financial Performance through Clear Objectives
Almost every business pays attention to financial performance. Studies show, however, that small and medium-sized businesses frequently do not engage in thorough financial planning. What really drives financial performance is setting SMART objectives based on clear goals and then creating detailed action plans so that the objectives can be achieved.
Read more about setting clear objectives;
Using COSO Principles to Improve Performance
You may be familiar with the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) framework for internal control. We have discussed it in past articles, and it received significant attention when referenced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) as an example of an “internal control” system as required by Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) sections 302 and 404.
Read more about using COSO principles;
Read Chris Anderson’s article on Writing Policies and Procedures at work.com.
The New Finance Policies and Procedures Manual
If you are trying to build an internal control system to help you comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial regulations, the new Finance Policies, Procedures and Forms manual can provide a big boost in your efforts. Why start from scratch when writing your financial policies and procedures to implement internal controls?
Read more about the new Finance Procedures Manual;
Besides helping comply with financial regulations, control systems can improve performance in all business segments. Through control activities, for example, policies and procedures can also incorporate the idea of setting process objectives along with regular measurement and review, as well as creating communication channels between key departments. In fact, all the procedures found in our policies and procedures manuals follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act philosophy of continually improving processes, including our newest release—the Finance Policies and Procedures Manual.
On That Note
Answer to this month’s question:
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has generated a lot of discussion about internal controls: What are they? What do they do? Historically, for business finance and accounting processes, controls referred to preventing fraud and abuse. Increasing regulatory requirements have made compliance an important part of control system goals.
Policies and procedures are listed as key control activities in the COSO publication “Internal Control – Integrated Framework.” Both the SEC and PCAOB point to this COSO document as an example of internal controls that meets SOX requirements.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments. Our policies, procedures and processes articles site has tons of useful information. Also, please let us know if you’d like any specific topic addressed in our future articles.
Regards,
Chris
Bizmanualz
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