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Thoughts on how to address Sarbanes- Oxley spreadsheet risk management in the business world

This article will guide you on how to address section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley act with regards to spreadsheets, using only Excel’s built in tools. Unfortunately the built in tools do not address all the requirements of the SoX act and, depending on your reliance on spreadsheets and their potential impact, you may need to consider some specialized tools.

Some links to useful video clips to prepare you for attending our training courses

Many Excel users are not familiar with, or are intimidated by the pivot tables feature which Excel has to offer. This is rather unfortunate as the pivot table is one of Excel's most powerful features as it can assist a user to create professional-looking Excel documentation that they never thought possible.

Let's look at what you should do, remembering that for any help, there is always us at AuditExcel, so you certainly don't need to feel frustrated or feel like giving up. Automatic sort in Excel is very handy and saves you time.

Access to Sarbanes Oxley spreadsheets should be controlled to ensure that only authorized staff can gain access and make changes to the spreadsheet. Ideally the spreadsheet should be stored in a folder that only allows authorized staff to access it (contact your IT department to find out which ones to use).

It is possible to also share your workbooks and specific spreadsheets via the Internet and email. By making use of the Google spreadsheets option you can upload an existing Excel workbook to the Internet and make it accessible to a user group.

Excel allows the user do a breakeven analysis through the use of the Goal Seek function. It is performed to obtain the total where the sales income is equal to the total costs.