Because of the very controversial Enron scandal and other unethical business practices, many businesses today are being affected by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) or more commonly known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. This means that when a business becomes a publicly traded company, the act imposes strict reporting, documentation, controls and other requirements. It also had a major impact on the IT industry because with computerized accounting and audit systems, this meant that many will have to comply with the general requirements and therefore supporting documents may be required of them.
Implementing Sarbanes-Oxley in any business will be costly and will require resources, time, and funding. But there may be a solution provided by Microsoft with its partner ecosystem, accounting professionals and MCP. With applications that are designed to extend IT investments in order to meet compliance requirements, documentation and general controls, Sections 302, 404, and 409 of the Act can be integrated into the Microsoft Dynamics software. A qualified MCP can create a seamless integration of the application to the audit and accounting system of the company.
Microsoft solutions with the help of accounting professionals and MCPs, will all be supporting the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Because companies are investing on IT systems to manage their financial requirements, the law requires that certain controls will have to be imposed in order for the systems to be audited. Section 404 takes special attention because it regulates IT controls including Change Management, Backup, Security, Documentation, General Supporting and Remediation.