Businesses of all sizes cutting across industry segments are always concerned about various compliances that they must ensure for running the business smoothly. Some new regulations keep on coming up at regular intervals that necessitate different kinds of compliances. As a business owner, you must be extremely vigilant to ensure that you have a complete understanding of the regulation and meet all the regulatory requirements. Some of the common regulations that affect businesses are Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 1996(HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), 2002, Can Spam Act 2003, Dodd Frank Act 2010, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 2004 and Federal Information Security Management Act 2002.

As regulations are increasing it is becoming a matter of concern for business owners and corporations who are now turning to specialized compliance software that ensures better and timely compliance. To know more about SOX and its implications keep reading.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), 2002

At the beginning of the millennium, US was rattled by a series of financial scandals like Tyco, Enron, and  WorldCom, to name a few, that served as a wake call for lawmakers and administrators about the need to protect the interest of investors and share holders whose confidence took a nasty blow. The act was the brainchild of US Congressmen Paul Sarbanes and fellow mate Michael Oxley and was aimed at protecting the general public and shareholders from fraudulent practices and accounting errors in the organization. It also addressed the issue of improving the accuracy of disclosures made by corporate by improving accountability and corporate governance.

It affects Finance and IT departments

The ACT affects the finance department as well as the IT department as it pertains to storage of records that come under the purview of the IT department. The Act mentions which records are to be stored for how long. According to the Act, all electronic records have a preservation period of minimum five years. Non-compliance can result in fine and or imprisonment.

The need for compliance software

With the introduction of SOX, all salesforce development companies in India and US are exposed to new and enhanced standards that ensured better and complete disclosures leaving no room for malpractices of misreporting.  To comply with the SOX requirements, businesses must manage the financial processes in strict conformity to laid down laws and supported by capabilities of accurate reporting. Achieving the tasks manually would be a time-consuming offer involving significant expenses. To meet the regulatory requirement actually, a software solution like Salesforce SOX became the need of the hour.

Benefits of compliance software

By making use of a single system that integrates controls and compliance activities, the task is greatly simplified. It ensures a systematic approach that is consistent too and minimizes redundancies and deviations.  Since control testing and remediation is streamlined and automated, it reduces compliance cost.  You can view the status of SOX compliance real time that reduces the risks of exposure.

Compliance of all kinds is gaining so much importance that enterprises of bigger sizes do not hesitate to appoint a chief compliance officer.

About the author:

Sujain Thomas is the IT head of giant conglomerate. In her earlier assignment, she worked for Flosum.com.  She loves to write, and whenever finds time indulges in various topics of her interest. A mother of two kids, she does not miss the Sunday lunch with her family.