SAP Leverages Relationships with Leading Advisory Firms like PwC to Comprehensively Cover Corporate Governance Requirements for Trusted Accounting and Financial Reporting in mySAP™ Financials and mySAP™ ERP
BANGALORE, INDIA — SAP India today showcased its newest innovations to help companies align their business processes and IT systems more easily and effectively for corporate governance compliance with the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA). Working closely with leading consulting and accounting firms, SAP has tailored financial compliance capabilities to comprehensively address companies’ SOA needs and reduce the complexity of meeting today’s most pressing business challenge.
Building on the inherent control principles and existing capabilities for SOA compliance in mySAP™ Financials and mySAP™ ERP, SAP has added new functionality for the management of internal controls and “whistle blowing,” and enhanced the solution’s Audit Information System, offering companies a straightforward, closed-loop solution for SOA-compliant accounting, reporting and performance management.
A Localized Solution for India
All the Indian and other non-US companies registered with SEC as well as all US companies having subsidiaries in India (and other countries outside US) are required to comply with SOA. These companies are seeking localized solutions that are tailored to meet Indian legal requirements. mySAP Financials supports Indian legal requirements and provides for a Chart of Accounts and Financial Statement specifically for use by companies with operations in India.
“As a global leader in ERP and financial solutions for more than 30 years, SAP is one of the foremost solution providers offering companies with proven financial control and trusted accounting capabilities that seamlessly integrate diverse business applications across the enterprise,” said Alan Sedghi, President and Managing Director, SAP India Sub-Continent. “By extending functionality in mySAP Financials and mySAP ERP to comprehensively cover Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, SAP helps companies reduce costs for compliance while leveraging these investments to improve business insight and performance across key business operations.”
Integrated Approach to Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
With SAP® Compliance Management for SOA, SAP combines its new and existing financial compliance functionality, leveraging the integration capabilities of mySAP Financials — a solution used today by more than 18,000 companies to create a sound internal control environment; produce accurate and timely financial statements; mitigate and monitor risk across the enterprise; and help ensure public trust. Due to SOA’s broad impact across business operations, the financial compliance offerings in mySAP Financials, as well as SAP’s comprehensive enterprise resource planning solution mySAP ERP, are designed to integrate with further mySAP™ Business Suite solutions such as mySAP™ Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM) and mySAP™ Human Resources (mySAP HR) to deliver timely and accurate business insight on all key indicators of company performance.
Instilling a Sound Internal Control Environment
SAP engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP globally to assist with the development of tailored functionality to help address certain provisions of SOA such as those in Section 404, which requires that management annually assess and report on the effectiveness of internal controls for financial reporting, to which external auditors must then attest.
“We worked with SAP to assist them in their efforts to align the underlying business processes and fully embed internal control management capabilities necessary to help effectively comply with today’s, and expand with tomorrow’s, SOA requirements. We are now working closely with ERP vendors like SAP India to help Indian clients requiring compliance to SOA. We have a strong SOA consulting practice and a strong SAP practice. We aim to combine these skills to provide complete solutions in this space to the clients in India who are required to comply to SOA requirements.” said Roopen Roy, Managing Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In-Depth Controlling with Audit Information System
SOA Section 302 requires that the chief executive and chief financial officers must certify quarterly and annually that their SEC report does not contain any untrue statements or omit any material facts that would make the filed statement misleading. The enhanced Audit Information System (AIS) in mySAP Financials delves deep into business processes across the enterprise and individual documents, providing a solid auditing workbench that enables internal and external auditors to streamline and enhance the auditing process.
In addition to increasing the speed of closing the books and reporting financial information for SOA, mySAP Financials offers globally operating companies comprehensive coverage of further corporate governance regulations around the world, including the Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) and International Accounting Standards.
