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SOX is short for Sarbanes Oxley. It’s a set of criteria that a company should follow in order to ensure that they are running their business using healthy and ethical business practices. It also is the primary driver for a lot of internal audit teams (sometimes inclusive of or the same thing as a SOX team) whose jobs include making sure the internal controls of a company uphold the premise of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and results in accurate financial reporting and whatnot.
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SOX is the accountant full employment act. Loved by PA partners everywhere and source of universal derision from investors, owners, and managers everywhere who despise its costs.
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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was the law passed back passed in 2002 in the wake of several accounting scandals (Enron, Worldcom, etc.). It does a variety of things related to financial record keeping and reporting for corporations.
SOX drastically impacted the audit industry in a few ways. It prevents accounting firms from providing consulting services to the same companies they audit (as was the case with Andersen and Enron). It ended the era of self-regulation of accounting firms by creating the PCAOB.
When people speak of SOX, they are usually referring to 404 of that Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes requires the audit of ICFR. Originally, it required both an audit of the effectiveness of ICFR and a separate audit of management's assessment of ICFR, and it originally applied to even small companies. They have since relaxed the thresholds for compliance, but the initial guidance promulgated by the SEC was very broad. Thus, the costs to corporations to become SOX compliant and to pay for the additional audit of ICFR were monumental (and also created revenue for the accounting firms).
I believe it also make penalties for certain executives (CEO and CFO) more severe Anna they have to sign off on the veracity of the financials as well
I think it’s also helpful to look at SOX from an operational/client perspective. It should also be seen as a tax on operational efficiency for public companies in exchange for gaining access to more money.
Would not necessarily have been detected or prevented, but having strong controls in place that actually work does make it one step harder to override them.