Sarbox deadline arrives

The deadline for non-US firms to comply with the US Sarbanes-Oxley law was reached last Friday, two years after the same rules were imposed on their US counterparts.

The legislation means that companies capitalised at more than £75m and dealing with the US must now report on their internal accounting controls and highlight potential flaws.

Analyst firm has Gartner estimated the potential IT expense at between 5% and 10% of firms’ typical 2006 IT budgets. It said the best way to handle the investment is for IT heads to treat all IT compliance projects as one rather than tackling them individually.

For many firms, preparations for Sarbox began early last year. Initial spend targeted areas such as consulting, audits, workflow and planning. More recent investment will have provided support for business process management, records management, security and IT operations management.

Recent reports said many UK companies were struggling to meet the 15 July deadline.

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