SAP SOX Compliance


What Is SOX Compliance?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 requires financial transparency by U.S. public companies, ensuring their data is secure and accurate. Drafted by Congressmen Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley following several U.S. corporate and financial scandals, SOX compliance means having a formalized system for internal controls — one that provides full financial transparency.

In a blog post, the criticality of SAP governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) for SOX compliance is explored. The author points out that two sections (Section 302 and Section 404) are the most important and relevant for SAP GRC and finance users.

What Is SOX Compliance?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 requires financial transparency by U.S. public companies, ensuring their data is secure and accurate. Drafted by Congressmen Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley following several U.S. corporate and financial scandals, SOX compliance means having a formalized system for internal controls — one that provides full financial transparency.

In a blog post, the criticality of SAP governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) for SOX compliance is explored. The author points out that two sections (Section 302 and Section 404) are the most important and relevant for SAP GRC and finance users.

An SAP SOX compliance checklist should address the following:

  • Segregation of duties
  • SAP GRC monitoring
  • Safeguard SOX audit trails against emergency access
  • Automate SAP audit reporting

Further Resources for SAPinsiders

Accounting & Finance Expands Its Influence. In this article, learn how UGI Utilities developed a strategic roadmap to better anticipate internal and external demands on the business — including regulations such as SOX. The utility shares how using BlackLine and its task functionality provides intuitive controls for SOX compliance.

Beyond SOX: Addressing non-financial risks through SAP configuration and sound supporting processes. Often, compliance is a focal point during SAP implementation to ensure compliance with financial reporting and regulations, such as SOX. However, there are optional SAP controls that could provide even more value to companies’ SAP system and supporting processes. In this session, Steve Biskie from RSM shares how to minimize and mitigate operational and strategic risks through SAP configuration. Understand who in the organization should be involved in recommending and validating control changes, and how to set up an appropriate cross-functional team to ensure decisions are sound and don’t introduce other risks.

Bridging the Cybersecurity Gap in IT General Controls (ITGC). Compliance with regulations like SOX often require a set of controls in place to mitigate risks to the integrity of financial reporting. Current ITGC testing performed by internal and external auditors is only focused on one slice of access risk. In this session, Brian Tremblay from Onapsis shares why it’s critical to understand the threats that exist to your SAP system beyond the current ITGC scope and how they relate to compliance with SOX.

 

A vendor that can help SAP customers with SOX compliance is Appsian Security. The provider offers a single platform for automating how users secure user identity, govern access, detect and prevent fraud, and demonstrate compliance with SOX, the General Data Protection Regulation, and more across critical business applications.  

540 results

  1. Manage Multiple Compliance Initiatives Effectively Leveraging Shared Master Data

    Reading time: 14 mins

    When different teams work with different procedures in different software solutions to address the many internal policies and external regulations to which a company is subject, it leads to inconsistent master data, unnecessary costs, and a lack of management visibility. SAP Business Objects Process Control 3.0 comes with a global master data catalogue and a...…

  2. Manage Multiple Compliance Initiatives Using the Multicompliance Framework in SAP Process Control 10.0

    Reading time: 16 mins

    Learn how different compliance initiatives can coexist within a central compliance management repository while harnessing existing master data. This leads to a more efficient regulatory adherence process. Key Concept Compliance initiatives are a set of regulations and legislations that an enterprise is expected to adhere to strictly in the process of conducting its business activities....…

  3. Reduce Costs for Compliance by Implementing a Risk-Based Internal Control Solution

    Reading time: 19 mins

    Costs for compliance and fraud prevention have risen significantly in recent years and with the current economic situation we’re likely to manage more regulations in the future, further driving costs up. Companies relish efficiency in the GRC space to garner the true benefits of compliance. One means of more efficient compliance is an integrated solution...…

  4. Enhance the Compliance Process and Regulatory Reporting in Your Organization with Disclosure Survey

    Reading time: 17 mins

    Kehinde Eseyin shows how implementing SAP Process Control 10.1’s disclosure survey in your business environment enhances transparency, documentation, and adherence to disclosure requirements. Key Concept Disclosure survey is a new type of survey in SAP Process Control 10.1 that is used to perform assessments at different entity levels – organization, control, and subprocess. The need...…

  5. Optimize Your Statutory Reporting Tasks Using SAP S/4HANA for Advanced Compliance Reporting

    Reading time: 20 mins

    In multinational organizations, reporting requirements are increasing day by day. Keeping track of all the reports generated and submissions can consume a lot of time and resources. The reporting format also changes over time due to changing regulations, and compliance with this format is of the utmost importance. Learn how to use SAP S/4HANA for...…

  6. Remediate Issues within Financial or Operational Compliance Initiatives in a Single System of Record

    Reading time: 13 mins

    Too often, controls are managed using inadequate tools (e.g., point solutions, document repositories, and spreadsheets) that require too much manual tracking and updating. With SAP BusinessObjects Process Control 3.0, you can streamline issue identification and remediation with automated task notification and workflow-driven remediation plans. Key Concept SAP BusinessObjects Process Control 3.0 comes with an advanced...…

  7. Take Advantage of Automated Controls for Continuous Monitoring and Compliance Testing

    Reading time: 17 mins

    Learn how the different options for control automation included in the automated control framework in SAP BusinessObjects Process Control 3.0 turn tedious and error-prone manual tests into a repeatable automated process. Key Concept A centralized and automated approach to continuous control monitoring and testing of effectiveness can considerably reduce effort, cost, and reliance on external...…

  8. cybersecurity

    Becoming CMMC or NIST Compliant and How to Prove It

    Reading time: 4 mins

    Over the next two years, many companies will face the challenge of compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, the U.S. Department of Defense’s supply chain cybersecurity requirements. In part one of a three-article series, we will demonstrate how to first understand the NIST/CMMC frameworks, and how they relate to SOX and separation of…

  9. Reduce Costs in Compliance Management with a Top-Down, Risk-Based Scoping Approach

    Reading time: 15 mins

    With the requirement of identifying and assessing the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls many companies have ended up producing too much documentation and performing more testing, resulting in increased costs of compliance. Regulatory agencies such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) encourage companies to...…

  10. Best Practices for Setting Up Authorization in Process Control 10.0

    Reading time: 18 mins

    Amit Saini explains how to set up authorization for different business users inside an organization using SAP Process Control. He also covers troubleshooting and best practices for different application scenarios in SAP Process Control. Key Concept A business role needs to be assigned to users for all SAP Process Control application entities such as organization,...…