Over the past 10 years, the development of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has grown to help companies in every industry track down and manage their fixed asset management. However, the technology has still not reached it’s optimum usage. Presently the technology is overly expensive and is only really used at the manufacturer stage or on more expensive products. (more…)
Whether you are a US company, or just a company with links back to the US, you may be required to know about the Sarbanes Oxley act. If you are a US company that has never heard of the act, then you will have most likely have learned something new. It’s an act.
The Sarbanes Oxley act is an act that was signed into US law in 2002. The act was created to stop what happened to Enron and Worldcom happening to other companies. Both of these companies were found to have been working using fraud deals for a number of years. At that current time, the companies weren’t required to show their records to the US government.
What the act does is it ensures that how businesses are run is legitimate and if they are not, it holds the key players responsible for the problems.
The act forces the Chief Executive Officers and the Chief Financial Officers to sign the books for the business. They are required to sign the records to say they don’t contain anything that’s false and that they match the companies earnings.
If the act is not abided by or the records are found to be false, the Chief Officers can be punished by the government.
Like what I said towards the top of the post, you might not be required to abide by the act. You only need to abide by the act if your company is based in either the US, UK or Europe and they have listings on the US stock exchange. You would also have to follow the act if your company was a subsidiary of a US company and based in Europe.
The Sarbanes Oxley act can be annoying for some US companies. Because the company is required to report every single business transaction, even the sale and purchase of company assets. This is where people have the problem because all the company’s fixed assets must before recorded.
The process of fixed asset accounting can be expensive and take time. If you attempt to do the job yourself, based on the size of your company, it can take a number of months and just cause more problems. The best way to make sure you have listed all your assets is by hiring an external company to do the job for you.
Unfortunately, this can still be expensive to do. However, a number of asset management companies offer features to make the next time you do an asset audit alot easier and cheaper. Many of the companies also offer Sarbanes Oxley compliance software which will make the job even easier for you.
Hopefully that helped you understand what the Sarbanes Oxley act is and what you have to do to abide by it. No doubt you won’t like the sound of the act, but you can blame Enron.