ACCT 105 APUS The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 Discussion In need of a 125 response/discussion to EACH of the following forum posts. There are (2) different | Course Hero

ACCT 105 APUS The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 Discussion In need of a 125 response/discussion to EACH of the following forum posts. There are (2) different Forum posts. Agreement/disagreement/and/or continuing the discussion. The two interactive posts should each be substantial, relevant, and engaging. Replies to classmates should include direct questions. In-text citations and references may be in APA format. Original forums discussion/topic post is as follows: (Use/Cite references to support your ideas)

Internal Controls

Chapter 7 of the attached textbook have been used this week.

FORUM POST 1:Discuss the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on a company’s internal controls. Be sure to define internal controls and discuss the basic principles for assessing internal controls. 

Hello everyone,

According to Sarbanes-Oxley subsection 302, internal controls refer to “disclosure controls and procedures”. Internal controls re defined as “controls and procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms” (Complete Guide to Sarbanes-Oxley: Understanding How Sarbanes-Oxley Affects Your Business. Chapter 7 pg 200). Broken down, internal controls are set by a company, specifically a CEO/CFO that make sure information is made available for certain time periods designated.
There are two basic principles for assessing internal controls. Management must have a plan to evaluate any possible material misstatement. Secondly, management must evaluate potential risks in financial reporting. 

Enron was an energy company based out of Houston, Texas that was considered a “new breed” of American energy. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2001, Enron dealt in gas and oil, paper and electric and was one of the biggest such companies of the time. Prior to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the oil and gas industries were deregulated by the government. This allowed for fair competition in the field, but without a proper control system it also allowed companies to misrepresent earnings reports, act fraudulently and embezzle funds. Though the SOX Act wasn’t set into play until after 2002, the lack of the act lead to Enron and other companies to easily manipulate financial reports and corporate fraud.

FORUM POST 2:The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was enacted in response to a number of accounting scandals in major corporations that resulted in the loss of billions of investor dollars. Choose one accounting scandal that precipitated this legislation and discuss whether or not internal controls (or lack thereof) contributed to the scandal..

Good Evening 

There have been lots of scandals surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) since it was enacted in July 2002. One of the more well-known scandals is Enron. Enron bought and sold gas and oil futures, built oil refineries and power plants, and became one of the world’s largest pulp and paper, gas, electricity, and communications companies.  

Of the many issues Enron had, the biggest, in my opinion, was the lack of internal controls. Basically, they were a company investing and trading in the world of energy. Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, created false financial reports – which resulted in bankruptcy. The firm’s asset reports were inflated, fraudulent, even nonexistent. Because of this, tons of employees and investors lots a lot of money – millions of dollars. If Enron’s higher-ups were watching their employees as closely as they should have, they would have noticed that money was missing, and fraud was happening right under their noses. 

Resources: 

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sarbanes-oxley-act-and-the-enron-scandal-393497 SARBANES-OXLEY
ACT
2002
MENU
A Guide To The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Home
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is mandatory. ALL organizations, large and small, MUST
comply.
Introduction
Compliance
Section 302
Section 401
Section 404
Section 409
Section 802
Miscellaneous
Humor
This website is intended to assist and guide. It provides information, and identifies
resources, to help ensure successful audit, and management. Whether you are entirely
new to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, or whether you have an established strategy, this
portal should hopefully prove to be of substantial value
Contact Us
Note: This website may be
available for sale. To
contact us use
soxhelp@soxlaw.com
EXTERNAL
RESOURCES
The Sarbanes-Oxley
Compliance Toolkit
contains various
downloadable resources to
assist with the compliance
exercise. These include
guides, presentations and
audit checklists.
The Sarbanes-Oxley
Forum is an interactive
chat type resource which
enables the free exchange
of information and opinion
Also, the AICPA is a
relevant associations for
CPAs.
Introduction
The legislation came into force in 2002 and introduced major changes to the regulation of
financial practice and corporate governance. Named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and
Representative Michael Oxley, who were its main architects, it also set a number of
deadlines for compliance.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is arranged into eleven titles. As far as compliance is concerned,
the most important sections within these are often considered to be 302, 401, 404, 409,
802 and 906.
An over-arching public company accounting board was also established by the act, which
was introduced amidst a host of publicity.
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
Compliance with the legislation need not be a daunting task. Like every other regulatory
requirement, it should be addressed methodically, via proper analysis and study.
Also like other regulatory requirements, some sections of the act are more pertinent to
compliance than others. To assist those seeking to meet the demands of this act, the
following pages cover the key Sarbanes-Oxley sections:
•
•
•
•
•
Sarbanes-Oxley
Sarbanes-Oxley
Sarbanes-Oxley
Sarbanes-Oxley
Sarbanes-Oxley
Section
Section
Section
Section
Section
302
401
404
409
802
Miscellaneous
Having studied the above pages, even if you are considering using an external consultant
or legal expert, it is well worth taking some basic steps to enhance your position
immediately. This not only demonstrates due diligence, but may well reduce the
consultancy costs themselves.
One area that perhaps falls into the category is security. In many respects security
underpins the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It is therefore important to quickly
establish a credible and detailed security policy, which can often be done readily via off the
shelf packages.
Finally, perhaps the most important statement on the entire web site: don’t put off until
tomorrow what can be done today! With other legislation and regulation we have seen far
too often organizations leave compliance until the last few days, and subsequently suffer
adverse consequences.
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