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. Experienced project managers will build measurements into the plans to assess success. Leading panies foster open munication between internal auditors, management, and external auditors. The first year of SOX implementation for accelerated filers resulted in less than ideal munications with external auditors, according to the SEC April 2005 Roundtable on Internal Control Reporting Provisions. Recent remendations from the SEC and the PCAOB have clarified expectations regarding external auditor munications, with the specific goal of improving the quality of testing, documentation, and remediation in the control environment, thus adding business value. Information overload is prevalent throughout business. In the “information economy,” management is frequently overwhelmed by the quantity of data available, often resulting in a failure to convert important business information into knowledge to support their petitive advantage in the marketplace. Leading panies have recognized that effective reporting of exceptions and an “executive dashboard” approach are the best ways to focus attention on important information, and they can avoid placing management adrift in a sea of meaningless data from endless sources.5。監(jiān)測(cè)MonitoringControl selfassessments (CSA) can play an important part in monitoring internal controls. CSAs place the responsibility for assurance that controls are in place and functioning with the business process owners, consigning ownership exactly where it belongs under the dynamics of typical organizational behavior. Several questions from a CSA on a pany’s accounts payable process are shown in. The IIA website has numerous examples. Another CSA option is an interactive workshop, which uses a facilitator to draw out control information from management. This approach leaves control with management, allowing the organizational process owners to follow up downstream with surveys or questionnaires in subsequent periods, further refining the work product. Monitoring efforts are best focused on leading indicators that allow time for correction, rather than lagging indicators that do not. The best reports for monitoring internal controls contain integrated information from both internal and external sources. Software packages can facilitate pulling together data from disparate systems and processes. In many organizations, the internal auditors are responsible for conducting a formal review of internal control work. Such a review should be conducted annually and should take advantage of “l(fā)essons learned” from SOX activities, as well as input from the external auditor.6 /