Thursday, October 14, 2004

Software helping companies beat Sarb-Ox deadline

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 Westford, 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.

Software helping companies beat Sarb-Ox deadline

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