Three Reasons Compliance Officers Are Switching to Automated SOX Compliance Management Software

According to a survey by the consulting firm Protiviti, the number of hours for Sarbanes-Oxley or SOX compliance has increased dramatically in 2021. The survey states that 65% of the 650 participants have increased the amount of time to comply with SOX by 10% compared to last year.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted after a series of accounting scandals in the early 2000s. Therefore, to ensure compliance in the industry, the Act requires companies to:

  • regularly audit their internal controls;
  • obtain management signoffs on financial reports;
  • establish Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to oversee audit firms; and
  • mandate enhanced financial disclosures, among other mandates

Though most businesses have become used to SOX compliance, the expenses and hours required for it have not decreased. Therefore, companies need to adopt automated compliance solutions that can adapt to the evolving risk landscape and help compliance officers streamline their tasks. The key features that are compelling compliance officers to switch to automated compliance management software are:

  • Advanced automation
  • Reduced review time
  • Customizable criteria

Advanced Automation

Highly regulated industries are required to oversee all communications to review those deemed non-compliant. The automated solution assists compliance managers by monitoring the ongoing communications and flagging non-compliant messages via customizable metadata- and content-based rules.

Reduced Review Time

Every organization deals with large amounts of data daily. The compliance management software handles the data issue by assisting the users in reviewing and sampling documents and emails, thus reducing the time.

Another time-consuming challenge is that the data is generally scattered across the enterprise. An automated compliance solution gives a holistic overview of the data from a single platform, thus reducing the review time. 

Customizable Criteria

Keeping up with the ever-changing compliance laws and regulations is not easy. Therefore, be it the regulatory landscape, industry standards, or the company’s internal policies, automated compliance solutions allow users to alter rules, policies, and review procedures as required.

Conclusion

Being compliant with the laws and regulations such as SOX, FINRA, GDPR, and others has never been easy. Moreover, the job of being compliant cannot be wholly taken over by humans or machines. It can be done with the support of an efficient compliance team, well-trained employees, and advanced compliance management software.

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