１. Rapid documentation
Accountants with a wealth of experience in SOX (Experience at internal audit departments/external audit experience) offer practical solutions for rapid documentation, keeping your company’s expenses to the minimum necessary.
２. Get an image of the final deliverables
By using our various templates and sharing an image of the final deliverables with the company at the beginning of the project, all internal audit members understand the outline of the project, and it can proceed smoothly.
３. Take quick action on material weaknesses
We do everything possible to quickly discover and resolve major problems to ensure that “material weaknesses” are not pointed out in the external audit in the year J-SOX comes into effect.
４. Communication
We increase the effectiveness of the project through close coordination with the external auditor, company auditor, and internal auditor.
List of J-SOX services
Diagnostic service for establishing master plan
Japanese companies are not familiar with “internal control evaluation by documentation” and these projects tend to be accompanied by a great amount of difficulty. To complete projects by March 2009, management must gain a complete understanding of the projects to determine project organizational structure and to clearly establish project policy. Without this framework, it is not possible to manage a project that encompasses overseas subsidiaries with different languages and cultures. This service is offered as a rapid diagnosis package of the following points and composes a report which will serve as a guideline for future project development.
We will need to narrow down the scope of the documentation based on appropriate evaluation of risks and carefully select key controls, focusing on the reliability of financial reporting to rationally reduce project workload.
Because the operational flow of our clients can be greatly different depending on their line of business and methodology, we must carefully consider the appropriateness of purchasing on-the-market standard documentation tools. We perform a cost-benefit analysis with specific numerical values to assess the benefits of our client’s purchase of standard documentation tools.
We will need to estimate the man-hours required for the internal audit through the final phase and establish an outline of the work schedule to determine the structure of the internal control project. We define the overall SOX project by using our tools to estimate specific work hours needed. Furthermore, by using our various templates and sharing an image of the final deliverables, we offer support that lets all project members understand the outline of the project.
How to quickly recognize material internal control weaknesses and how to plan appropriate countermeasures are two other important points. CPAs with a wealth of SOX experience will endeavor to quickly recognize major financial reporting risks.
Pay constant attention to project progress trends and plan specific solutions to problems
Pay constant attention to project progress trends and plan specific solutions to problems
Promoting rapid documentation
We attach great importance to the pilot documentation being performed by our CPAs experienced in SOX. IT specialists (Assistant CPAs/ US CPAs) with a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) qualification address IT general controls and IT application controls. CPAs with a wealth of overseas experience work with you on overseas subsidiaries. This allows us to achieve a level of documentation quality that can withstand operational tests and prevents the need to re-do things later on. This is a lesson that we learned from the first year of SOX implementation in the US. Many US companies could not withstand operational tests because they rushed their documentation with too much low quality material and ended up needing to re-do their documentation in the first year of implementation.
We offer strong support for building company-level control and evaluation
There are 2 types of company-level control: controls that are designed at the parent company and extended to the subsidiary and controls that are designed and implemented independently at the subsidiary, such as the subsidiary’s personnel system. In particular, it is not easy for a parent company’s internal audit staff to evaluate the effectiveness of company-level controls developed and implemented independently at the overseas subsidiary, due to differences between local and Japanese cultural and business practices. Company-level controls, unlike process such as sales, have many aspects that are not specified clearly within the company. A certain level of reorganization of internal rules is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this type of company-level controls. Operational tests also have many difficulties such as preparation of a test plan and determination of test results. We offer support in building and evaluating company-level controls that include overseas subsidiaries based on an understanding of these characteristics of company-level controls. It is possible for the parent company to identify the major risk information of the subsidiary in a timely manner by reevaluating company-level controls. We also offer suggestions on measures to enable global risk evaluation and risk monitoring
Review of overseas subsidiary accounting closing process to achieve acceleration
In general, the accounting book closing process is slower at overseas subsidiaries than at the parent company due to insufficient accounting personnel and faulty accounting systems. There are many cases of delays in the closing of books at overseas subsidiaries impeding the acceleration of the parent company’s consolidated accounting closing schedule. Problems in the closing process at overseas subsidiaries become clear during the process of the J-SOX project. Taking advantage of this to reorganize and integrate the current closing process and systematically automate it, you can also accelerate the monthly closing process while improving internal controls. However, sometimes it is difficult to prepare for parts of the closing process that require high-level decisions or work time such as asset evaluation and estimation of allowances, since some important management decisions are made right around the deadline. We assist in realizing an accurate and rapid closing of accounts at overseas subsidiaries by organizing the closing procedures, and identifying items which can be prepared in advance and those that cannot and providing the necessary accounting training to accounting managers at overseas subsidiaries.
Guiding the preparation of the 3 point set based on an understanding of internal and external audits
An understanding of the perspectives of external and internal audits is indispensable when building internal control. Our personnel training program uses the following three points to provide a real understanding of internal control.
[Point 1]
Instructors with experience in US-SOX external audits provide guidance in documentation methods (3 point set) based on perspective from external audit.
Because the operational flow of our clients can be greatly different depending on their line of business and methodology, we must carefully consider the appropriateness of purchasing on-the-market standard documentation tools. We perform a cost-benefit analysis with specific numerical values to assess the benefits of our client’s purchase of standard documentation tools.
We will need to estimate the man-hours required for the internal audit through the final phase and establish an outline of the work schedule to determine the structure of the internal control project. We define the overall SOX project by using our tools to estimate specific work hours needed. Furthermore, by using our various templates and sharing an image of the final deliverables needed for the current year we offer support that lets all project members understand the outline of the project.
Accounting outsourcing for foreign-capital companies in Japan IFRS/US GAAP implementation consulting ERP operations support for foreign-capital companies in Japan ERP implementation support Filing of tax returns Payroll calculation Transfer pricing consulting Internal audit support for overseas subsidiaries J-Sox support Support with expansion into China Accounting check of Chinese subsidiaries