What Is The Sarbanes-Oxley Act?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was implemented and designed to “protect the interests of the investing public” and the “mission is to set and enforce practice standards for a new class of firms registered to audit publicly held companies” (Verschoor, 2012). During the early 2000 's, the world saw an alarming number of accounting scandals take place resulting in many corporations going bankrupt. Some of the major companies involved in these scandals were from Enron, WorldCom, and one of the top five accounting and auditing firms, Arthur Andersen. These companies were dishonest with their financial statements, assuring the public the company was very successful, when in reality they were not. This became a problem because if the public believes a company is doing well, they are more likely to invest in it. That is to say, once these companies were exposed, it caused a number of companies going bankrupt and a major mistrust between the public and the capital market. Consequently, the federal government quickly took action and enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, also known as SOX, which was created by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Many have questioned what Norman Bowie (2004) had questioned,

Dynamic companies use their internal budgets to make course adjustments throughout the year. For instance, if a product or service is not doing well in the first half of the year in comparison to the forecast or budget, the management team can use that information to make necessary changes or to scale back operations until market trends or the economy changes. Managerial accounts are the value creator for the organization (Collier, 2003). Their forward-looking capacity will help the organization to plan and make decisions for future profitability. The management accountants have a dual role to perform in an organization. The management accountant works as a strategic partner to provide strategic based financial and operational information (Collier, 2003). They are also responsible for business team management in organizations. The management accountant plays a prominent role in preparing financial reports, risk, and regulatory reporting, aggregating financial information, forecasting and planning important organizational information. Managerial accountants often perform cost analysis of products and divisions, which include variable and fixed costs. The production decisions made by managers are a direct result of information received from managerial accountants.

In the early 2000’s there were a series of financial scandals that took place by large companies such as Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. The impact of these scandals was significant. Investors lost large amounts of money. Employees of the scandalous companies not only lost their jobs but lost their life savings. The financial scandals that had taken place were so severe that an Act was created in response to them in hopes to prevent these scandals from happening. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also referred to as SOX or Sarbanes-Oxley, was created by Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2002. The creation and passing of the act was so tremendous that “in the opinion of most observers of securities legislation” Sarbanes-Oxley was “viewed as the most important new law enacted since the passage of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934” (Ink.com 2008).

Prior to the advent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, referred to herein as “SOX,” the board of directors’ pivotal role was to advise senior leaders on the organization’s strategy, business model, and succession planning (Larcker, 2011, p. 3). Additionally, the board had the responsibility for risk management identification and risk mitigation oversight, determining executive benefits, and approval of significant acquisitions (Larcker, 2011, p. 3). Furthermore, for many public organizations, audit committees existed before SOX and provided oversight of internal processes and controls. Melissa Maleske (2012) advised that the roles and responsibilities of the board were viewed “…from a perspective that the board serves management” (p. 2). In contrast, Maleske (2012) noted that SOX regulations altered the landscape “…to a perspective that management is working for the board” (p. 2). SOX expanded not only the duties of the board and the audit committee, but also the authority of these bodies (Maleske, 2012, p. 2).

This highly qualified reasersch paper explores published articles that report on results from research conducted on online (Internet) and offline (non-Internet) relationships and their relationship to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed by the U.S. Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise, as well as improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures. With the research I have done I believe that with the act being accepted and pass made a big change for all organizations, large and small.

The time frame is early 2002, and the news breaks worldwide. The collapse of corporate giants in America amidst fraud and stock manipulations surfaces. Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth and later Adelphia are all suspected of the highest level of fraud, accounting manipulation, and unethical behavior. This is a dark time in history of Corporate America. The FBI and the CIA are doing investigations on all of these companies as it relates to unethical account practices, and fraud emerges. Investigations found that Enron, arguably the most well-known, had long shredding sessions of important documents and gross manipulation of stocks and bonds. This company alone caused one of the biggest economic

New levels of auditor independence and personal accountability for CEOs and CFOs are provided by the Act. Additional accountability for corporate Boards, as well as increased criminal and civil penalties for securities violations, increased disclosure regarding executive compensation, insider trading and financial statements are also presented under SOX. (The Institute of Internal Auditors: “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Effect on Audit Committees at Organization Not Publicly Traded.” January 2004. Accessed May 31, 2012 from: http://www.itaudit.org/)

The first title of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 relates to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) division. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act provided for the creation of PCAOB as an oversight organization to regulate the methods and procedures for auditors while they are performing an audit on a publically traded company. PCAOB is in charge of registering auditors that will be participating in publically traded company audits in addition to monitoring the quality of the audit work that is produced. PCAOB also establishes guidelines and directives that are applicable to all publically traded company audits. Lastly, PCAOB not only monitors the work and actions of independent audit firms, they sanction and enforce disciplinary measure against firms

In the wake of the major financial scandals, that occurred in 2001 and 2002 the United States Congress passed the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. These financial scandals adversely affected the public’s trust in the stock market, therefore passing the SOX helped investors to regain trust in investing in the stock market. Prior to the SOX being passed “neither management or auditors of publicly traded companies were required to evaluate, audit, or publicly report on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting” (Kinney & Shepardson,

Sarbanes-Oxley is an Act that was enacted in 2002. The enactment was undertaken by the United States Congress thus making it a federal law. In addition, this Act was supported by Michael Oxley and Paul Sarbanes, represents a gigantic change to government securities law (Franzel, 2014). The motivation behind the enactment was to ensure that there was a legal framework that could help deal with the increased number of major corporate and accounting scandals that had been witnessed in the United States. Various sections of this bill are concerned with the roles and responsibilities that have to be played by the board of directors.

In 2002 the telecommunication company, WorldCom committed one of the biggest accounting scandals of all time. They perpetrated over *1 $3.8 billion in fraud, leading to a loss of 30,000 jobs and $180 billion losses for investors . This is one of the several accounting scandals that led to the passing of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which introduced the most comprehensive set of new business regulations since the 1930’s. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is an act that was passed by United States Congress in 2002. This act safeguarded investors from the likelihood of fraudulent accounting practices of publicly traded organizations by authorizing strict reforms to advance financial disclosures and prevent accounting frauds. With SOX being an extremely important piece of legislature it is necessary to understand the reasons why SOX was passed, how it was passed, what it entails, the aftermath of the act. To understand the events that lead to SOX passing it is imperative to grasp the business regulations that existed and allowed these accounting scandals to occur.

Managerial accounting underlines on future choices and it is not an obligatory practice. It gives data to the association's insiders in connection with performance assessment, inspiration, course and control. The opportuneness of report is a noteworthy prerequisite and accentuation are set on the significance of things in choice making (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2010). Administrative bookkeeping gives a report on clients, items, workers and divisions. Also, it is not an absolute necessity for administrative bookkeeping to take the proper accounting rules.

Management determines what they would like to include in the report. No authoritative body requires managerial accounting reports. Management carefully considers behavioral implications, when designing the managerial accounting system.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in July 30, 2002, by Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from fraudulent corporate practices and accounting errors and to maintain auditor independence.   In protecting the shareholders and the general public the SOX Act is intended to improve the transparency of the financial reporting.   Financial reports are to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) creating increased responsibility and independence with auditing by independent audit firms. In discussing the SOX Act, we will focus on how this act affects the CEOs; CFOs; outside independent audit firms; the advantages and a

In a typical midsize or large business, the accounting department will usually have accounting clerks, payroll clerks, staff accountants, senior accountants, an accounting manager, and other accounting positions (e.g., accounts payable clerks, accounts receivable manager, etc.). However, most accounting departments of midsize or large corporations will be led by a controller or someone with similar responsibilities (e.g., finance director, etc.). Controllers are essential to a company’s back office operations. For instance, they are responsible for the timely completion of payroll, manage the daily functions of accounts payable and other cash disbursements, comply with government reporting and tax requirements, and ensure the