Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires presentation of financial data in specified format . Argent software facilitates collation and presentation of data from diverse databases.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted with the purpose of ensuring better corporate governance. Company executives are now directly responsible for ensuring correctness of their financial reports. The debate is still on whether the costs involved in compliance are really worth or it simply adds to the already overburdened corporate expense account. Whatever may be the verdict, compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires investment in software which would create appropriate reports after analyzing corporate financial data.

Argent software provides a flexible package which collects, collates and presents financial data suitable for Sarbanes-Oxley. Due to the complexity of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements, it becomes necessary to collect data from various databases. This means that any software used for Sarbanes-Oxley reporting has to be flexible while mining data. Argent software is capable of handling diverse data sources. In effect if a company data is spread over several databases, for example, SQL server from Microsoft, Oracle financials or CRM from Oracle and IBM mainframes, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance may effectively require all the data. In addition, data has to be presented in an acceptable format. Argent software provides for data collecting from all popular databases.

Company databases moreover run on various platforms which are geographically or spatially distributed. A server may run on Windows operating system and another on HP –UX or AIX. Argent software can handle multiple operating systems. The connectivity between different servers and platforms is usually diverse. Some may be hooked to a T3 connection with ultra high speed whereas some others may crawl trough with TCP/IP link. Argent software claims to overcome speed disparity and handle transactions at high speed.

Data integrity is an important consideration. Loss of data during transmission and also in storage is a major concern since we are handling sensitive financial data. Proper checks and balances with fail safe and failover technology can assist in ensuring data security. Argent software claims it incorporates features enabling data security and integrity.

Scheduling is another feature which is highlighted by Argent software. One can consolidate data in real time or schedule it on a daily, weekly or any other convenient basis.

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is a data intensive process which requires collection of data from multifarious sources. The system environment from which data is collected is also diverse. Argent software provides features which can be used flexibly to collect and analyze data to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

By Diana Lahitte, VP Finance

GreenCode Technologies, Inc.

(954) 840-8068

The standards of corporate governance have been eroded over the last few decades. Due to abuse of authority certain corporations have landed in financial crisis. Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a stricter guideline for corporate governance. 

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been claimed as a landmark legislation resulting in tighter fiscal and accounting standards in corporate America. The issues which Sarbanes-Oxley Act specifically deals with are: 

1. Independence of auditors: The relationship between corporate and independent external auditors is fraught with conflict of interest. The big five auditing firms (as they were known prior to year 2002) usually undertook consultancy work for the same firms for whom they were external auditors. Any discrepancy pointed out by these firms in accounting practices, led to a souring of relationships, which might have led auditors to sweep contentious issues under the carpet. By restricting external auditors from undertaking non-audit work, this conflict of interest situation has been remedied by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
2. The genesis of Sarbanes-Oxley Act or the main propelling factor was the dramatic collapse of giants like Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. In their wake they sucked out billions of dollars in equity and destroyed investor confidence. The blame for this economic tragedy was firmly laid at the feet of corporate managers. Sarbanes-Oxley Act brought in legislation to make CEO and board of directors comply with stricter guidelines. Here again there was a conflict of interest introduced due to huge amount of stocks held by executives who were directly responsible for managing the affairs of the company as well. Stock market manipulation could not be ruled out in this case. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 clearly articulates their fiscal responsibility and liability towards the accuracy and validity of corporate financial reports.
3. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is not restricted to corporate governance and compliance alone. It has far wider ramifications and brings into its ambit other players who play a lesser but still a significant role in ensuring the financial health of public enterprises.  Security advisors can sway sentiments of investors by either painting a rosy picture or a bleak outlook for public enterprises. Security agencies have played no less a role in the collapse of Enron. Many an investor has been carried away by the figures rolled out by prestigious security firms. Their involvement, intentional or not, has had an impact on the share market. Restrictions on their operations were needed and reporting standards enhanced to safeguard interest of investors.  
4. Banks have no less a role to play in this fiscal environment. By investing in bogus firms, a wrong signal is sent out to investors, who in the mistaken belief that Banks could do no wrong, repose faith in such companies. When corporate like Enron folded up, banks had to take losses worth billions of dollars. Banking norms had to be strengthened with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been hailed as a grand success as well as a miserable failure by professionals on both side of the great divide. Whatever may be the conclusion it has come to stay as an important part of corporate governance.

By Diana Lahitte, VP Finance

GreenCode Technologies, Inc.

(954) 840-8068