The U.S. Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, demands compliance in much of the business world. Publicly traded companies, along with many other businesses, must ensure all aspects of their business operations are within the confines of the law.
No software makes a company compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley, nor can a solution be guaranteed concerning compliance on behalf of a company using that solution. If a company is responsible for complying with the act, it is the company’s responsibility to secure the necessary tools to assist with compliance requirements.
The role of software in supporting compliance with the act is to support management in implementing suitable processes, adequate controls and assisting in the documentation and auditing of those processes and controls. SAPÆ Business One supports management’s efforts to implement, document, and audit appropriate processes and controls. Specifically, SAP Business One software can help a business follow the law within three specific sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
These include:
- Section 302 outlines the corporate responsibility to produce accurate, certified quarterly reports submitted to the SEC.
- Section 404, which governs the necessity and accuracy of internal controls for the financial reporting process
- Section 409, which requires the issuance of real-time issuer disclosures.
SAP Business One is an ERP that provides numerous capabilities to businesses looking to improve their systems. Their key offerings align with the requirements of portions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by providing:
- Financial management
- Sales and customer management
- Purchasing and inventory control
- Analytics and reporting
- Industry solutions
- Intuitive mobile access to reports
This software system’s insights and management potential allow businesses to fully integrate and customize the resources to suit their specific needs. Some of the direct features offered by SAP that can aid in reaching compliance for their business include:
- Full integration of business functions
- Finances, sales, light manufacturing and assembly, reporting, inventory management, and purchasing each run through a single system.
- Built-in customization tools and a software development kit
- Provides businesses the ability to customize their business uses of the features.
- Approval procedures
- Customizable approvals for events that are sent to the proper management
- Alert systems to identify exceptions
- Management alerts for different variances, budgeting, and more
- Financial reports
- Sub ledgers with drill-downs, SAP Drag&Relate feature, transferring orders to invoices.
- Real-time reporting
- Sales and purchases are instantly posted, financial reports are built into the system, and advanced reporting tools are available.
- Tamper preventing
- SAP Business One can limit financial posting to one open period and ensure authorizations are in place to view, update, or access forms.
Each of these features provided by SAP Business One is highly beneficial in aiding a business to reach compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley law. The software is widely applicable and can assist with several major areas of corporate compliance and better business practices.
Even companies that are not beholden to the Sarbanes-Oxley law may wish to ensure their business operates with the same level of responsibility by including the ERP software in their company.
Even though SAP Business One is a just single tool to help a company stay within the boundaries of the law, it is a significant, highly beneficial software.
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