The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 is considered to be the most significant change to federal securities laws in the United States since the New Deal. It has no reference to the Chicago White Sox professional baseball team. It came in the wake of a series of corporate financial scandals, including those affecting Enron, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom. Among the major provisions of the act are: criminal and civil penalties for securities violations, auditor independence / certification of internal audit work by external auditors and increased disclosure regarding executive compensation, insider trading and financial statements.

While most Sarbanes compliance reviews are normally gathered using spreadsheets and word documents, T3Consortium has been working with a number of accounting and software firms to develop a scalable, globally accessible firm wide repository of traceable Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requirements.

Think for a moment. Most of your governance controls are probably in place. But the process is wide-spread, manually executed, and difficult to use in a collaborative manner. That's where we work with your business and compliance officers to validate your processes, and create the digitization maps and traceability matrices. Once the processes are digitized, our Advanced Modeling will allow the program to expand, while focus turns to creating repeatable automation processes. (see Diagram below).

Whether your an IT Quality Assurance Engineer, or a seasoned CPA, our processes can make your job more reliable, easier to reconcile, and traceable.

T3 Consortium believes that you can combine the Compliance and Governance functions and use Quality Assurance practices to advance your SOX Compliance initiatives.

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Sample Sarbanes Compliance Traceability Window.
No more spreadsheets - complete control.

T3 Consortium tests SOX-Sarbanes Oxley, your software, and your processes.

Here's what Oracle is saying about SOX.

In general terms, a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance plan has three elements:

• Systems for collecting compliance-related data in consistent form

• Procedures ensuring that rules are followed and necessary information is collected

• A single source of information where financial, contractual, and other data resides (or to which it flows)

This three-pronged approach is important, because Sarbanes-Oxley compliance isn't strictly a finance or IT task. Compliance requires broad involvement from many departments. Leadership is important; some experts recommend appointing a chief compliance officer whose responsibility is to coordinate compliance-related activities across departments. Larger firms will also want to identify and train people to serve as local points of contact for compliance-related questions. Employees will need training in addition to new systems and procedures.

Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act Background:

One of the most burdensome compliance acts to corporate America has been SOX, known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Organizations are struggling to identify methods to validate compliance to protect the integrity of the shareholders, customers, and directors.

T3 Consortium understands the complexity of compliance and is working to develop a IT strategy that will verify Sarbanes Oxley compliance, and provide a detailed audit and reporting repository for compliance officers.

Recommended Reading:
Click to Download	The Real Deal   Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 Fresh from the House of Representatives ext provides a practical approach for managers in assessing internal control structure at t   The act is named after its architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. It is also intended to "deter and punish corporate and accounting fraud and corruption, ensure justice for wrongdoers, and protect the interests of workers and shareholders" as stated by President G.W Bush The Sarbanes-Oxley Act itself is organized into eleven titles. Sections 302, 404, 401, 409, 802 and 906 are the most significant with respect to compliance. Pay particular attention to  Section 404. It seems to draw the most interest. The Act also created a public company accounting board.
	Editorial Reviews   Book Info Text provides a practical approach for managers in assessing internal control structure at the transaction level. Introduces the 'Control Smart' approach, which helps identify and understand operational threats, and guides readers through a comprehensive evaluation of internal control systems to mitigate these risks. DLC: Corporations--Accounting
	Editorial Reviews   Product Description: Created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Group LLC, this book includes practical, actionable advice that every Finance and IT professional must have at their fingertips as they pursue, or consider pursuing, a journey of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance