Software helping companies beat Sarb-Ox deadline

Computerworld - Some companies that have until 2005 to document their financial controls under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, such as Becton, Dickinson and Co., are using documentation software to avoid having to rush their work at the last minute.
Under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, most large companies must document in their annual reports the financial and IT controls they have in place for fiscal years ending on or after Nov. 15, 2004. But companies whose fiscal years end before Nov. 15, such as BD, don't have to meet first-time compliance requirements until next year.
Instead of holding off on documenting those controls, BD is using Web-based software from Waltham, Mass.-based OpenPages Inc. to help it get ahead of the curve.
"We realized quickly that we could do this [documentation] via Word or Excel spreadsheets, but that wouldn't have been cost-effective or efficient," said Mark Lubas, associate director of continuous assurance for the Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based medical technology company. Instead, BD began evaluating documentation software from 25 vendors in May 2003 and settled on the OpenPages system later that year. BD installed the software on its corporate intranet in late 2003.
When BD started its new fiscal year on Oct. 1, the company finished upgrading to a newer version of OpenPages' SOX Express software, said Bill Eng, finance manager in the company's corporate controller's office . About 65 of the company's 100-plus global sites are using the software to document their financial and IT controls, he said.
Nonaccelerated filers are certainly better positioned to meet Section 404 requirements than companies that have to achieve compliance by the end of this year, said Stan Lepeak, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Meta Group Inc. "I think a lot of companies are scrambling to get this work done," Lepeak said. "There's a lot of anxiety about 'Are we ready or not?' and a lot of IT organizations are not taking this as seriously as they should," he added.

Metrobank N.A. doesn't have to meet Section 404 readiness until the end of 2005. "But we're going full steam so we can avoid the crunch," said Mike Siraj, director of audit for the Houston-based bank.
Metrobank is using a software tool called Focus from Cokato, Minn.-based Paisley Consulting Inc. to help it document the risks and controls associated with its financial processes. Siraj said the bank plans to have all of its documentation updated by Jan. 1. The bank plans to test some of its controls this fall and continue those tests