A recent inquiry from one FEI member prompted this response from Bill Sinnett, FERF Director of Research.

Question:

We have been a non-accelerated SOX company but we need to be compliant by the Spring for the year-end financials.  As part of our financial close SOX review, I'm trying to put together my own "CFO checklist" of month-end duties.  Do you happen to have an example or know anyone that already has implemented something like this?

When I was in a Controller role I had all kinds of month-end checklists to sign-off but since being in a CFO capacity for the past 8 or so years I never really used one but now I want to formalize the process of what I review for each reporting period.  Obviously I can come up with my own but I'm curious what other CFO's might be using?

Answer:

First, here is a link to NASDAQ’s current Corporate Governance Rules (Scroll down to 5600):

http://nasdaq.cchwallstreet.com/NASDAQTools/PlatformViewer.asp?selectednode=chp%5F1%5F1%5F4%5F2&manual=%2Fnasdaq%2Fmain%2Fnasdaq%2Dequityrules%2F

Second, one important aspect of internal control is segregation of duties, which your auditors will check during your annual audit. FERF just released a Segregation of Duties Checklist, written by BDO Consulting. Here is a link:

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Third, FEI has an entire section dedicated to Sarbanes-Oxley:

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The most recent post (January 2009), was when the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board published Staff Views – An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting That Is Integrated with An Audit of Financial Statements: Guidance for Auditors of Smaller Public Companies.

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Here are some older links:

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And still more information:

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Finally, one of the best guides to Sarbanes-Oxley was published by Protiviti in 2002 “Frequently Asked Questions about Section 404”:

http://www2.financialexecutives.org/download/Section404FAQ.pdf