Understand 404 Compliance Framework — and more!
- Understand all Aspects of the COSO and COBIT Framework
- Examine the SEC and PCAOB Requirements Related to Section 404
- Learn from SOX 404 and SEC Horror Shows
Calculate Your Firm’s Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ)
- Improve Institutional Ratings and Lower Your Firm’s Cost of Capital
- Quantify Corporate Governance and Value Added Benefits of Section 404 Compliance
- Understand 63 Positive and Negative Factors That Drive Corporate Governance
- Study Corporate Governance Best Practices That Will Enhance Corporate Value
Learn How to Streamline Procedures
- How to Establish the Scope—Controlling Your Most Important Cost Driver
- How to Test Entity-Level Controls: Top-Down and Risk Based Approaches
- How to Use the Control Matrix—Your All Important Dashboard
- How to Use the Trial Balance as the Starting Point for Your Control Matrix
Automate and Sustain the Process
- How to Continually Sustain the Process
- How to Set the Stage for Continuous Testing of Control Effectiveness
- How to Automate Financial Reporting Controls
- How to Leverage Your Firm’s Documentation for Added Value
Understand Corporate Governance Metrics, Reduce the Cost of Capital and Enhance Corporate Value
Save Your Company Time, Money and Effort With This Practical, Cost-Effective, Streamlined Roadmap for Successful Compliance
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SOX Section 404 Realities
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- New/evolving business rules triggered by Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404
- Dealing with the new SOX Section 404 realities
- Section 404: much more than documentation
- Implementing and testing controls in action vs. controls on paper
- Prudent 404 implementation should add quantifiable value to a firm
- Understanding the COSO framework
- Entity-wide controls
- Traditional accounting controls
- Information technology controls (COBIT)
- Understanding the stakeholders and their influences
- Examples of compliance headaches and potential solutions—group participation
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Quantifying Corporate Governance, Controls and Ethics
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- Understanding the Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ)
- Yahoo/Finance/Ticker Symbol/Profile/CGQ
- Index ranking and industry ranking
- Understanding 63 Governance Factors that drive the score
- Five major categories and weighting
- Understanding positive and negative factors that drive the score
- Understanding how institutions use the CGQ
- Reduced risk and superior returns
- Lowering risk of downgrade from Moody’s, etc.
- Incorporating CGQ ratings into investor screens
- Benefits of strong governance, controls and ethics (examples and studies)
- Leading investor indicator of performance and value
- Lower cost of capital—enhanced investor/ lender confidence
- Lower insurance premiums, especially D&O
- Lower risk of shareholder legal suits
- Protect/enhance your most intangible assets: name and reputation
- Review: How SOX compliance impacts CGQ
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Understanding What the SEC and PCAOB are saying
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- Top-down approach to 404
- Focus on entity-level controls (control environment, risk assessment, information and communication, monitoring) early in the process
- How to appropriately and efficiently tailor testing based on entity-level controls
- Examples and case study/discussion
- Risk-based approach to 404
- How and why to clearly define evaluation objectives at the start of the process
- Strategies designed to involve process owners in identifying and discussing risk
- How to craft an audit program that identifies where the greatest risks exist
- Examples and case study/discussion
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The External Audit Environment
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- Dealing with the permanent change in client-auditor relationship
- Examination of PCAOB’s Auditing Standard #2 as the auditor’s roadmap
- The best ways to reduce your firm’s audit fees —concrete examples
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How to Build Your Firm’s 404 Compliance Team
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- SOX 404 Steering Committee vs. the Disclosure Committee and the SEC’s preference
- Identify your true project managers, team members and responsibilities
- How to use process owners to concur compliance
- How to minimize external consultants
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How to Use the COSO Framework To Determine Scope and Boundaries
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- Overview of the COSO Integrated Framework and Internal Control
- Understanding the danger of the old checklist mentality
- Distinguishing between components, factors, points-of-focus and subsidiary issues
- How to use the COSO framework to pass the audit and federal scrutiny
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Establishing the Audit Scope – The Most Important Cost Driver
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- Using materiality with the risk-based approach to identify the greatest risks
- Using the control matrix—your all important dashboard
- Using the trail balance as the beginning point for your master control matrix
- Populating the master control matrix through the first tier of your financial statements
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Conquering Entity-Level Controls
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- Understanding the pervasive nature of entity level controls
- Why the board of directors is the most important control of all
- Documenting “the tone-at-the-top” and other soft controls
- Testing entity-level controls—a comprehensive set of examples
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Reinforcing Day One Essentials
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- SOX 404 spirit
- The major control areas needed to pass 404
- Initial assessment of entity-level controls
- Designing a master control matrix that is ready for action
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Pursuing a Win-Win in Documenting Control Design
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- Leveraging your firm’s documentation for added value
- How to address all the necessary bases of GAAP assertions and disclosures
- How to address accounting controls and antifraud controls
- Who, what, when, where, why and how to capture crucial compliance information
- Best practices for SOX documentation
- Spreadsheets, narrative write-ups, flow charts and surveys
- The pros and cons of Microsoft Office™ Suite vs. SOX software programs
- Populating the master control matrix through the second tier of your financial reporting controls
- Understanding the precise definition of a “key” control
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How to Automate Financial Reporting Controls
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- Examples of automated controls
- How to reduce testing through automated controls—the key concept to minimize your firm’s implementation costs
- Why most companies fail to tap into their existing automated controls
- Timing of ERP conversions and upgrades
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Setting the Stage for Testing Control Effectiveness
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- Aligning resources
- Crafting internal audit programs
- Populating the master control matrix through the third tier of testing your key controls
- Who should be watching the evaluators?
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Examining the IT and the COBIT Framework
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- Study and evaluation of the IT systems that house, move and transform financial data
- Understanding the COBIT Framework
- Entity level general controls
- IT Governance (decision making and strategy)
- Information architecture
- Management of human resources
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Educate and train users, etc.
- Activity level general controls (e.g., security, change management controls, data management, back-up/recovery)
- Application controls (e.g., access, data validation, error reporting, interfaces)
- ISACA’s IT Control Objectives for Sarbanes-Oxley
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SOX 404 Horror Shows
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- What material weaknesses are companies reporting? Examples
- Legal risks of noncompliance
- What went wrong at HealthSouth?
- The falling shares of Merge Technologies
- CASE STUDY: Good intentions—bad execution
- CASE STUDY: Documentation failures
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Continually Sustaining the Process for the Long Haul
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- Keep it simple!
- Why culture trumps written controls
- Confronting common challenges
- Achieving the perfect balance of scope, key controls and automated controls
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CPE Credits
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This seminar is recommended for 16 CPE hours of Auditing credit.
The National Center for Continuing Education is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Visit the NASBA web site at www.nasba.org.
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This seminar is ideal for accountants, auditors and financial professionals who need a definite understanding of how to implement
SOX Sections 404 and 302 in a cost effective manner that adds shareholder value. Included in this group are:
- CFO’s, Treasurers, Controllers and Accounting Staff
- Auditors: Internal and Independent
- Financial VPs, Directors, Managers, Analysts and Staff
- Board Members, Audit Committee Members, Compliance Officers
- Securities Regulators and Government Finance Officials
- Corporate Counsel and Staff
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Seminar Prerequisites
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Course Level: Intermediate
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of Sarbanes–Oxley Legislation
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If you have a group of 14 or more employees who need to understand How to Comply With Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 or other financial training, then NCCE’s customized training is the cost effective solution for your organization. Bring How to Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 in-house and insure that your staff has the technical skills, knowledge and training to assure effective compliance with SOX.
NCCE’s in-house seminar clients include Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Harley-Davidson, Stanley Tools, General Mills and Deloitte & Touche.
For more information or to schedule a custom in-house program, e-mail NCCE at contact@nccetraining.com or telephone 800-635-9615.
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