Understanding Sarbanes Oxley

There are a few things you can do to learn how Sarbanes Oxley works. First, read reviews and synopses of the Sarbanes Oxley Act on the SEC website; they give an excellent overview of what the law is about. Second, you can get training focused in several different ways on the part of Sarbanes Oxley you need to understand.

The main thing to understand about Sarbanes Oxley, though, is that it primarily affects how you do your accounting, and thus how you run your IT services. Electronic controls must properly manage your financial information, so that you have clear, easy-to-access real-time information on your company's finances. Corporate finances must be kept separate from executive finances, payroll, and other moneys. Auditing for accountability is crucial, so that if errors or misinformation enter the data stream you will be able to determine the source.

With Sarbanes Oxley, even if you were ignorant of what was going on in your accounting, if you are a major executive you will be both civilly and criminally liable for any errors released to the public, or the failure to release certain information in a timely manner. You must learn about Sarbanes Oxley, not just to comply with more government regulations, but to protect your personal life.