The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Costs, Benefits and Business Impacts

The honesty you expect in your small businesses, or in your workplaces, in your community or in your home, will be expected and enforced in every corporate suite in this country (George W Bush, 30 July 2002). So the Sarbanes-Oxley Act came into being as a mandatory requirement for all listed corporations in the USA. Revelation of the specifics of this overwhelmingly comprehensive legislation shocked the international business community due to the intensity of its long term gaze. For SOX is not a one time blip on corporate radar screens, its a new and ongoing, growing and developing way of conducting business. As feedback accumulates, legislators, bureaucrats, watchdogs, professional associations and international and global groups continue to refine the processes and standards for both satisfying the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and clarifying the standards both for general corporate behaviour and more specifically for accounting and auditing professions. As "...one of the most influential--and controversial--pieces of corporate legislation ever to have hit a statute book (The Economist, May 21 2005), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a hot topic. This new book goes beyond the implementation phase of SOX and looks at both the reaction to the Act, among prominent financial, government and business leaders, and the various effects it has had and will continue to have economically in terms of costs, benefits and business impacts. Convergence is indeed the big buzzword; governments and multinational corporations are striving to reach international agreement in order to produce a set of transnationally/universally applicable accounting rules and regulations. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has quite clearly forced public corporations into the realm of greater transparency and accountability in terms of the provision of 100% reliable financial reporting. Whilst its introduction is generally approved it is thought that SOX was introduced a little hastily and needs tweaking to ease the pain. Thus whilst it has been somewhat successful, the cost (well over a trillion dollars) might be considered too high a price to pay for the gains. Michael F Holt, senior Technical and Business Documentation specialist, probes business leaders, brokers and financial consultants, auditing firm heads, CEOs and CFOs of large and small corporations thus producing a comprehensive review of SOXs impact on business, economics and governments since its inception in 2002. The authors speciality lies in his ability to take complex and specific concepts, documents and proposals and present them in a clear, attractive and comprehensible manner. This book is essential for senior managers in the Business and Financial/Accounting Communities.Holt, Michael F. is the author of 'The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Costs, Benefits and Business Impacts' with ISBN 9780750680233 and ISBN 0750680237.