This week's topic relates to Sarbanes-Oxley and compliance issues surrounding information technology in the field of accounting. I found an article written by Scott Gordon in the October 2006 edition of Financial Executive, entitled "Where IT Accounting Raises Compliance Issues".
The author points out how Sarbanes-Oxley has raised compliance issues regarding IT in accounting, along with the financial reporting standards it created. Among the new standards set by the law surrounding the information technology systems that support financial reporting, there are compliance issues with the company's reporting of the transactions surrounding the acquisition of these IT systems. The author lists examples of these transactions, including: 1) the treatment of hardware used in outsourcing, 2) the treatment of entity providing outsourcing services, and 3) the treatment of service contracts with software development or maintenance firms. The author goes on to argue that the recording of these transactions is not to be overlooked, and emphasizes the importance of the CFO of a company understanding the IT systems used.
I believe this article defends my previous blog on how IT is extremely important in the field of accounting. This article brings up how important these systems are in the accounting field, and how financial reporting is highly effected by the used of such systems. While reading this article, it was obvious to me that information technology has a great effect on the way public accounting firms operate today. These systems are used daily by firms worldwide in order to efficiently store client data and prepare financial reports. Clients being audited also benefit from these systems through effective and efficient audits of their firm.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment