Sarbanes Oxley - IT Professionals and IT Consulting Scope of Work
Because the Sarbanes Oxley Act is so focused on the finance aspect of businesses, the IT consultant is often left wondering if there is any scope of SOX implementation work that requires the services of IT professionals.
In this article, I will briefly outline how the IT professional can make significant contributions to a SOX compliance project, and how you can go about searching for SOX-related jobs and expand your IT career in that direction.
First things first. SOX is all about internal controls over financial reporting. And we know that a high percentage of, if not all, financial data is stored, processed and managed by various computerized financial systems. Here is where the IT professional who has a strong background in computer security and information technology system controls coupled with an adequate understanding and appreciation of accounting will get a head start in landing that SOX job.
In other words, terms such as Inventory, General Ledger, Debits, Credits, the Accounting Cycle should not intimidate you. You will be the individual who has intimate knowledge of the workings of the financial applications system. And you had better be good at communicating with the relevant accounting officers, internal and external auditors when it comes to dissecting the control measures currently in place and how to improve upon them or maintain the status quo.
Let’s take an example of the sales process. A sale transaction is entered into the system. Are you able to identify the points in the system that authenticates the user and only allows those with the necessary privileges to enter the transaction? Do you know what happens next? What tables are updated? Are you competent enough to produce a trace file showing the logging of the transaction itself, and the relevant updates to debits and credits in the correct accounts? Can transactions be modified? By whom? Where are the Audit Trails? And so on.
From the previous paragraph, it’s very clear what tasks need to be performed on your part. Demonstrate this competency convincingly, and the job is yours. Your ability in identifying internal and external risks in the computing process is a valuable asset that all SOX implementation teams require. It is so difficult to find individuals who are suitably skilled in Finance and Information Technology, so this is your opportunity to break into the market. Competition for such job roles is surely there, but supply is limited.
We now come to how you can search for job openings. Go to Dice.com and search for the keyword “SOX” - it’s that simple. Dice.com is generally more effective than Monster.com because of its focus on tech-related opportunities. If you want a job which is more specific, then try to add keywords such as “compliance” or “IT governance” or “implementation”.
In conclusion, there are all kinds of IT professionals, of which the SOX type is only one of them. Are you the one? Answer yes if you have an interest in business processes and finance matters. One more thing - SOX implementations involve a lot of back and forth communications between various parties, so make sure you are up to that task too.
Head over to SarbanesOxleyNotes.com ( sarbanesoxleynotes.com/ sarbanesoxleynotes.com) for more sarbanesoxleynotes.com/ SOX articles discussing all aspects of the sarbanesoxleynotes.com/ SOX Act and its implementation.