Best Practices Under Audit Standard 5

With the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002, companies have had to dramatically ramp up regulatory compliance efforts. Based on the guidance they received, companies began factoring a compliance check list into almost every process. Controls were designed to cover every possible source of financial reporting fraud. As these controls became more cumbersome, companies found it an increasing strain to comply with SOX regulations - and still, they failed to prevent the fraud these requirements were supposed to address, as evidenced by recent headlines regarding financial misstatements and deceit on the part of some very high-profile corporations.