Job Responsibilities
The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) has created a fantastic
opportunity for professionals seeking a broader view of their
business, and want to see their influence through continuous
improvement efforts. SOX Business Controls professionals are
something akin to internal auditors that monitor the business on
behalf of management (as opposed to working for the Audit
Committee, who typically directs internal audit efforts).
The work requires one to develop a broad understanding of the
business processes in the organization, and the development of
relationships at all levels from executive managers to accounting
clerks.
While the work will vary by company (since it's so new and
implemented so many different ways right now), one's efforts
could be broken broading into the following buckets:
- 30% meetings and soft skills (gathering often undocumented
details about what groups do, and specifically gaining an
understanding of the hand-offs that occur between functional
groups within processes)
- 20% process, risk and control analysis (getting to understand
the business, and the processes that result in financial results)
- 20% testing of controls (executing actual testing/auditing of
controls to ensure they are functioning properly)
- 20% process and control improvement, as you seek to improve the
quality of transaction data moving from initiation of a
transaction through to the financial statements (ie. how the
company makes money)
- 10% reporting and communicating (this work has high visibility,
and is reported through a number of channels so that management
all the way up to executives have visibility to the outcomes)
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Job Requirements
The work requires an undergraduate degree, and some business
experience is helpful in understanding how general business
processes flow. Business degrees are helpful, but not mandatory
(given that many Internal Auditors come from backgrounds outside
the b-school).
The most direct route is from an existing audit role, in either
External (Big Four) or Internal Audit. In most instances,
professionals in this work have an accounting background, though
process-oriented professionals rapidly aclimate to the accounting
jargon since process controls are more focused on healthy reviews
and effective process than substantitve testing of financial
results.
Important skills to cultivate for interested parties include:
- Ethics and Corporate Governance: as important as the accounting
work is, the rules came about because of poor business judgement -
which you will be required to evaluate and opine on
- Audit and Investigation: developing a sense of professional
judgement and an appreciation for a structured methodology in
testing
- Basic Accounting: you should understand general ledger
structure, how numbers roll up to the financial reports, and the
components of public reporting (SEC External Reporting) that all
companies are subject to for public trading
- Process mapping and modeling: graphically depicting a complex
series of events
- Analytical Review: developing a feel for how much information
is enough in researching issues and weaknesses in controls
- Interpersonal Communication Skills: understanding how to "peel
the onion" through exploratory dialogue, and develop buy-in for
changes that must be implemented
- Information Technology Implementation Processes: often referred
to as system development life cycle (SDLC), a professional should
be familiar with standard practice for bringing applications (and
automated controls) into the production environment of a business
process.
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Uppers
This work yields a rare end-to-end perspective on business processes, typically
only held at the executive level. For any process, one will come to understand
how transactions are initiated, authorized/approved, processed and captured in
systems, and ultimately posted to the financial statements. This is an important
understanding to develop when thinking about key value chains within core
business processes.
Further, the constant contact across all parts of a business make you an
invaluable resource for managers to tap as they seek improved hand-offs between
functional groups, giving rise to involvement in larger process improvement
efforts.
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Downers
This is compliance work, and the first priority remains on the
testing of controls. As compliance work, one can face reluctance
among business owners when processes need to be redesigned, and
compliance requests - in the absence of clear management support -
can languish without attention.
Another personal challenge has been being outside the value
chain - you monitor, measure and seek to improve, but you aren't
adding value directly to the bottom line. For me, this has meant
that shareholder value has be derived from ensuring SOX
compliance (protecting existing value) and identifying
improvement opportunities for efficiency as well as effectiveness
of process and controls (creating value).
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Lifestyle
SOX work is about combining technical knowledge of
governance/accounting regulation with analytical assessment of
business process. Get to know the lingo and current issues that
existing professionals are facing (ie.
http://www.insidersarbanesoxley.com) - you will sound more
insightful.
Process-oriented professionals that see their workas an ever-
evolving effort will consistently find new challenges, so boredom
should be limited. Job security is high, since this is required
of all public, and soon likely, all non-public entities seeking
public financing and faith.
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Compensation
As an emerging field, skilled resources are scarce, so comp is
up. In my org,
Analysts (min exp,degree) - to $40k, 20% bonus
Consultants, Sr. Consultants (2-5 yrs exp) - $50-80k, 24% bonus
Managers - (CPA/MBA, 5+ yrs exp) - $70 - 100k, 30% bonus
Directors- (CPA/MBA, 5+ yrs exp) - $90 - 120k, 40% bonus
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Advice to Jobseekers
SOX work is about combining technical knowledge of
governance/accounting regulation with analytical assessment of
business process. Get to know the lingo and current issues that
existing professionals are facing (ie.
http://www.insidersarbanesoxley.com) - you will sound more
insightful.
Process-oriented professionals that see their workas an ever-
evolving effort will consistently find new challenges, so boredom
should be limited. Job security is high, since this is required
of all public, and soon likely, all non-public entities seeking
public financing and faith.
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