Sarbanes-Oxley For Dummies

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2002 as a result of failures by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in reporting fair and accurate statements regarding their company's financial status and activity. Investors base investment decisions on an accurate representation of those facts to understand a company, its soundness, and its opportunities.I have a very good friend who sold his company, one he built from scratch, to Bernie Ebbers, CEO of WorldCom. WorldCom's false financial reporting and subsequent loss of US $100-billion to investors led to Ebbers to being convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 2005. And my friend lost both his company and his hard earned fortune.SOX was the antidote for fraud and failures like this which were rampant in the early 2000s, at the same time as the Dot.com crash. While the law was targeted to corruption in public companies, its net also included small and not-for-profit companies, who had to adopt the same standards as better financed larger companies. SOX is frequently blamed for the lackluster IPO market for emerging growth companies. These companies, which are typically cash negative, must now spend months and $3-5 million to become eligible for being traded on most public markets."Sarbanes-Oxley for Dummies" was written by author Jill Welytok, JD, CPA to help us understand the history of the legislation, its intent, and how to implement it in a way to curb costs without losing the required controls. Welytok practices in the areas of corporate, non-profit law, and intellectual property. Her cheat sheet outlines the key take-aways of the book. Her advice includes how to:1. Form an audit committee.2. Avoid paranoia with regards to Section 404 by using the guidance she gives on to control costs without cutting controls.3. Prevent whistleblower complaints from becoming lawsuits.4. Keep a lid on insurance premiums with cost effective SOX compliance.5. Be credible when raising capital. Documenting Sox compliance with relevant aspects of the law shows creditors and donors that your company operates in an ethical, controlled environment and that its future growth is a good bet.6. Develop and deal with real financial data for making decisions. Financial data cannot be speculative and financial procedures can't be ambiguous.7. Figure out if SAS 70 applies to your company.8. Communicate about control. When a company experiences a breach of ethics and internal control, it's important to be able to trace the company communications see where breakdown occurred. This book provides tools and checklist to test communications as well as other types of control.9. Prepare management for new levels of liability. Sox places more responsibility and potential liability on management teams. Executives need to understand they cannot delegate control to others.10. Adopt a code of ethics and mean it.In the last two sections (Part VI and the appendix), Author Welytok provides "The Part of Tens - 10 ways to avoid getting sued or criminally prosecuted under Sox; 10 tips for an effective audit committee; 10 smart management moves; 10 things you cannot ask an auditor to do after Sox, and 10 places to get smart about SOX" - and some very helpful tools - the entire Sarbanes-Oxley law; sample certifications; sample audit committee charters; sample audit committee reports, sample corporate governance principles; a sample code of ethics; and a sample SAS 70 report.The reader trying to familiarize him or herself with SOX will find "Sarbanes-Oxley for Dummies" a good buy as this is good place to begin.

This is basic to the point of being wiki. Then the book seemed to be 1/3rd of adds. I could have watched a youtube video that was free and said the same thing in 2m.

Imagine being hired as a Sr. Auditor for a small company in a newly created department. As you can assume, I had to learn the nature of this type of exam activity and quickly. This book allowed me to have a general understanding of what is expected and exactly what Sarbanes-Oxley means for our company. The guidance provided within this book is a starting point but you must do your research. If you have the opportunity to sit down with a mentor or someone who has actually gone through an audit, coupled with this book you will be successful.

Book was very, very helpful in recognizing fraudulent actions within nonprofit entities. This book is a reference source to keep and use.

It looks like a new book even though it's an old edition. It won't affect too much for using it.

Honestly I was a little disappointed. The content seems dated and some discussions are extremely shallow even for the Dummies series.

Sarbanes-Oxley For Dummies:I read this book when I exactly needed, I was able to answer the questions that my boss asked for and completed our Sox testing for 2013!

This book is very informative and very fun to read!

I purchased this for my wife who within her job takes on many varied roles with her being a contract business analyst, a current project required a very fast introduction to the Sarbanes-Oxley system etc. She is a through / fast reader and seems to have taken on this book in enough detail to quickly become knowledgeable enough in the subject to be able to sensibly input and understand discussion on the subject. She has not commented against the book in any way, and I am assuming no news means it was good, she is not slow in discussing failings, constructively, should things not be up to the task.Why this book when there are so many? The Dummies books in the past do deliver semi instant knowledge, and although they are not always the best in a given subject, when you want a book fast without being able to flick through the pages, they normally come up with the goods.

I don't usually read the 'Dummies' series, as I expect them to be too simplistic.I purchased this book as requested by my Company - and it's brilliant! I already knew the background to the subject, but the way this is cleverly written; really informs the readers' understanding of why we do what we do with regards to SOx.Extremely informative at more depth than I would ever imagine!(Also a BARGAIN, at the price!)

Heavy on the history and general outline of case studies. Very light on actual practical detail of what changes would be needed in a company's business processes "on the ground". Some detailed worked examples here would have been so useful.

Handy guide to get overview on this subject

Boring - but then I never bought it for the interest value. Good bite sized pieces and handy for work