The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit : Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors [Hardcover]

Michael J. Ramos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0471712256 | ISBN-13: 978-0471712251

The tools to manage ongoing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

In The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit, author and consultant Michael Ramos provides a detailed road map to help companies not only streamline their compliance process, but also make the process manageable and repeatable year after year.

The first book to provide detailed implementation practice aids for Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit is packed with work programs, audit checklists, and examples that readers can tailor to meet their own unique needs. Featuring a useful CD-ROM that contains all of the tools from the book, this timely workbook includes best practices that will benefit anyone who participates in the planning or performance of the effectiveness of internal control.

A must-read for all CFOs, internal auditors, CPA firms, and independent auditors involved in the compliance process, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit embraces the common approaches and methodologies that have proven successful in the new world of Sarbanes-Oxley internal control testing and reporting.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Every company that has successfully completed its first year of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance now has to establish an ongoing process to maintain their compliance. New challenges companies have to address going forward are:

• How to create a methodology that is repeatable and easily taught to new employees who were not part of the original core project team
• How to make the assessment of internal control more effective and less of a drain on already limited resources

The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit is a wellspring of detailed implementation practice aids to help companies continue to meet the complex internal control reporting requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Providing a road map through the entire compliance process, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit offers clear instructions to help readers gather and assess information in order to form logical, supportable conclusions about internal control effectiveness. In addition, it lays out a very involved testing process that engages the project team with operating personnel to discover "what really goes on" at the company. To ensure successful discovery, this book helps the project team be highly active by encouraging them to ask multiple questions, make observations, and corroborate single instances of control compliance until a clear pattern emerges.

In addition to a wealth of forms and checklists, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit features a helpful CD-ROM containing all the tools in the book, including a collection of detailed work programs, audit checklists, and examples that can be tailored to meet the needs of any practice and client.

By refining the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process and creating an integrated tool set, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit helps make the compliance process repeatable, more efficient, and more effective.

From the Back Cover

The tools to manage ongoing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

In The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit, author and consultant Michael Ramos provides a detailed road map to help companies not only streamline their compliance process, but also make the process manageable and repeatable year after year.

The first book to provide detailed implementation practice aids for Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit is packed with work programs, audit checklists, and examples that readers can tailor to meet their own unique needs. Featuring a useful CD-ROM that contains all of the tools from the book, this timely workbook includes best practices that will benefit anyone who participates in the planning or performance of the effectiveness of internal control.

A must-read for all CFOs, internal auditors, CPA firms, and independent auditors involved in the compliance process, The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit embraces the common approaches and methodologies that have proven successful in the new world of Sarbanes-Oxley internal control testing and reporting.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 357 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471712256
• ISBN-13: 978-0471712251
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toolkit That More Than Pays for Itself, September 19, 2005

By 

Christopher Byrne "The Business Controls Caddy" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit : Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors (Hardcover)

One of the unintended consequences of subscribing to a Sarbanes-Oxley Listserv is seeing how many auditors, and companies, are struggling with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. There has been a lot of uncertainty for auditors, and companies, as what is required and how to go about setting up an effective audit plan and making compliance repeatable, sustainable reality. I have seen more calls of help for toolsets in this Listserv than I wish there were, but that has been the reality. However, there is now an outstanding resource to help external, internal auditors, and companies get their acts together by streamlining the 404 compliance process.

Michael Ramos, author of the excellent "How to Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: Assessing the Effectiveness of Internal Control", has now written "The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit: Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors" (357 pages, John Wiley and Sons, 2005, ISBN 0471712256. This is not a book to sit down and read. This is a book that, from cover to cover, provides worksheets, sample documents, and decision criteria for their use. It is a book that comes with a CD-ROM of the entire documentation contents that will more than pay for itself from the first day you have it in your hands.

It is hard to look at a book like this and say "I like or do not like what the author has to say", or that "I really like the author's writing style". What you need to look at in deciding whether or not to purchase this book, is a series of questions.

Do you have to conduct Section 404 audits as part of an external audit or as part of a control self-assessment? Do you need ready to go and completely customizable templates to help you in this process? Do you want to use tools developed by an experienced Certified Public Accountant, instead of having to sit down and spend days on end developing your own toolsets and work paper templates? How much non-billable time are you willing to spend developing these tools? Do you want an easy to understand methodology that can easily be taught and passed on to other employees as part of a knowledge transfer and enablement program?

If you are like me, these questions will give you the easy answer of "Yes!". All of the documents provided on the CD ROM are in word format, and the disk also contains a Microsoft Word document viewer and a copy of Open Office. Each form comes with a purpose statement to understand its use, as well as instructions on how to use them. Ramos starts with the general work program and takes the process all the way to the end with management reports. There is also a sample general audit program.

Who Should Read This Book

The purchase of this book should be a no-brainer for internal and external auditors, managers, and consultants doing SarBox work. I add this latter group because there are too many consultants out there who are telling clients things that are not quite accurate. This book should help them provide better services.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Selected as workbook for UC Santa Cruz class, January 3, 2007

By 

Jacky E. Hood (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit : Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors (Hardcover)

For the future presentations of the University of California Extension Sarbanes-Oxley class, we selected this volume and CDROM as the workbook. The earlier textbook was too high-level and theoretical. The head of the Finance and Accounting department was quick to approve the change. The participants in the class include both accounting and IT professionals; they will appreciate the very practical nature of this volume.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars really a practical guide, August 24, 2005

By 

Feng Zhixin (PR China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Implementation Toolkit : Practice Aids for Managers and Auditors (Hardcover)

this book provides very detailed content for SOX issues. Since the Act itself is quite complicated, so more detailed the better. I think this book really helps.