Sarbanes-Oxley & Spreadsheet Remediation

Bring Your Spreadsheets into Sarbanes Oxley Compliance

Many public companies are discovering that some of the processes at greatest risk for Sarbanes-Oxley non-compliance are the complex spreadsheet systems that are mission critical to financial operations. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, errors traced to un-audited spreadsheets have contributed to billion-dollar misstatements in financial reports sent to Wall Street. These unsecured, un-auditable, error-prone spreadsheets are found throughout every enterprise and because of their sheer number and complexity, defy attempts to replace them by packaged CPM applications.

A3 Modeling can help meet compliance requirements by offering a flexible approach to remediating non-compliant desktop spreadsheet systems. Deeply integrated with Excel, yet centrally managed under a secure Web architecture, A3 Modeling supports PricewaterhouseCoopers 12 'controls' required to properly remediate spreadsheets:

1. Change Control
2. Version Control
3. Access Control (e.g., Create, Read, Update, Delete)
4. Input Control
5. Security and Integrity of Data
6. Documentation
7. Development Lifecycle
8. Back-ups
9. Archiving
10. Logic Inspection
11. Segregation of Duties/Roles and Procedures
12. Detective Analytics

Moreover, A3 Modeling takes spreadsheet remediation one step further than the usual "document management" solutions by transforming them into centrally managed Corporate Performance Management applications. Once automated using A3 Modeling, these spreadsheets can be integrated with other CPM solutions, and their data can be made available on Executive Dashboards for greater visibility and control.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Whitepaper "The Use of Spreadsheets: Considerations for Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act", introducing the concept of Spreadsheet Remediation and the 12 controls for Sarbanes Oxley compliant spreadsheet deployment, can be found here.