RE: Sarbanes-Oxley 404 Project Information - RANT

["Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Ditto John! This is hard stuff. It's regulatory and no one's done it before,
but it's possible to get your arms around, and very worthwhile.

I spent some time going over the first few pages of the PCAOB standard
released on Tuesday. It has some excellent background information and really
explains the concepts of control well. For those who are interested in
discussing it, that might be a slightly more accessible starting point. I
plan to read more this weekend and also look into the tool situation some
more. The article that John provided was an excellent resource.

One of the ways that I'm trying to provide value to the financial services
company I'm contracting through is by learning more. I've been vocal about
letting them know this (in fact I sent the link to the standard to the
hiring partner, even though I was sure she'd seen it already). I've only
just started working for them, but they like me so far and I want them to
find me another gig. They're sold on having tech writers on their projects.
I want to make sure they stay that way. I'll also spend some more time
learning MORE about Visio. That's a skill they test for now that they've had
a few writers try to sneak their way through.

I'm going to use what I find out about tools to send back to the last
client, who's going to have trouble selling her IT department on any sort of
doc management system, which they really need. (They shouldn't be dictating
this to her, but they are.)

Anyway, I plan to share all this back with the list and I hope that we can
talk more about it. I'll try to write up some information about how the
writers helped on the team at some point too. 

Every single public company has to do this. Large or small, domestic or
international. Companies that have a lot of decentralized accounting
functions will have to do more work than those with centralized operations.
The initial effort is going to be pretty massive. Likely your company will
have to spend money on outside resources. Wouldn't it be great if you could
present yourself as a resource?

Lisa 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com] 
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 6:23 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: Lisa Wright
Subject: RE: Sarbanes-Oxley 404 Project Information - RANT


>Yes, exactly, this is all process documentation.
>However, the difference from what we are used to 
>as process documentation is that it is only 
>concerned with processes that relate to getting 
>financial information into the financial statements. 

Guys...I gotta get this off my chest.

I was really hoping that this topic, based on Lisa's VERY excellent
overview, would become a point of discussion on the list for a few days. I
don't think others know what an impact this could make to our field and what
a impact we can make to the process...but then I guess it's not as fun as
bitching how it's THEIR fault I can't find a job.

OTOH, it does require learning something that isn't tool related.

Ya wanna surprise the crap out of some people? Understand the regulation,
then go to your CFO and ask him if s/he needs help with documenting SOX
issues.


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