Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) - Entity Level Controls 2 CPE

Entity level controls (ELCs) are often difficult to identify and even more difficult to assess.  Soft controls are similar to entity level controls. They do not lend themselves to normal validation processes.  Assessors must often utilize interviews, questionnaires and observations or other unique methods.

Other courses have looked at top-down risk assessment (RA) and discussed ELCs and some methods for assessment. This course delves further into understanding approaches to assessing the design and operating effectiveness of ELCs and soft controls.  We cover methods and alternatives to measuring and assessing ELCs and soft controls.

Information within this course comes from readily available public domain documents and is utilized by the trainer as a supplement for relaying the course content.

Note: The concepts outlined in this course are up to date and relevant in regards to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Although there have not been any changes in the legislative concepts of the law since it’s release in 2002, some aspects of executing the work have evolved. This speaker is preparing a series of courses titled “Sarbanes-Oxley 20 years later”. Those courses can be found individually on the platform and would be beneficial for anyone involved with compliance.

NOTE: The Instructor has created 5 new segments on Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later:
Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later: Accounting Risk Assessment Considerations
Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later: Sourcing Emerging Risks Part 1
Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later: Evaluating Testing Processes
Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later: Sourcing Emerging Risks Part 2
Sarbanes-Oxley Update - 20 Years Later: Examining Fraud Risks

Prerequisites

No Advanced Preparation or Prerequisites are needed for this course. 

Learning Objective

• Explore Hard vs. Soft entity level controls (ELCs)
• Recognize challenges of evaluating soft controls
• Explore Methods for assessing soft controls and determining effectiveness
  • Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO)
  • Maturity Model
  • Cause and effect analysis
  • Questionnaires and surveys
• Discover how to link soft controls to COSO principles and financial statement assertions

Last updated/reviewed: March 12, 2024