MasterControl Inc. on Oct. 25 unveiled a complete and easy-to-use solution for companies seeking compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), a sweeping reform in corporate governance meant to prevent financial malpractice such as seen in the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

Since the law's enactment in 2002, companies are discovering that SOX is a process, not a single event. The burden is not in initial compliance, but in sustaining it. SOX requires continuous monitoring and reassessment of financial risks and controls to close any loopholes that could potentially lead to misstated financial statements. SOX also makes CEOs and CFOs personally accountable for the integrity of financial statements, giving compliance a sense of urgency and seriousness not found in other regulations.

The MasterControl SOX solution automates and effectively manages business processes, including monitoring risks, controls, and tests. As SOX documents grow exponentially, MasterControl can simplify the compliance environment by controlling voluminous documents, records, and SOPS under a centralized Web-based system.

MasterControl developed the PEEM (plan, evaluate, execute, and maintain) Cycle, a method for managing SOX implementation. Using MasterControl SOX as a tool and the PEEM Cycle as a method, companies can make sure that when a significant corporate or operational change occurs, such a change is automatically coordinated within the SOX environment.

MasterControl SOX is designed not only to help you attain compliance, but to sustain it. Here are its key features:

Risk-Control-Test Form — A pre-configured form that documents and collects data pertaining to the most important elements of SOX compliance: risks, internal controls, and tests. It links every risk with its control and test through pre-built workflows. It allows testing to be automatically scheduled and incorporates escalation to ensure that tests are completed.

Analytics and Reporting Tool — MasterControl's advanced reporting capabilities give a real-time view of a company's compliance status. Customizable reports (with online charting) include:

• Risks/controls/test matrix
• Risks by business process or financial statement
• Significant control report, significant risk report
• Test summary by control
• Non-effective control report
• Test failure/exception report
• Open tasks report, overdue tasks report.

Risk-Control-Test Assessment Tool — This innovative tool reduces the time and effort needed in establishing new SOX cycles by allowing importation of RCT data from current disclosures en masse. Each RCT form is automatically configured, eliminating errors in manual/individual transfer of information from every form.

Organizers with Virtual Folders — Similar to Windows Explorer, the Organizer is an easy-to-use and dynamic tool for grouping financial statements with the appropriate business processes, controls, and tests. It automatically assigns document and form links for easy finding and viewing of documents and allows users to organize and view information by business process and/or financial statement.

Company Information

Salt Lake City, Utah (see map)
Contact Name: Jason Clegg
Phone: 800-825-9117 (toll-free)
email: jclegg@mastercontrol.com
Website: www.mastercontrol.com