This resource guide answers 48 questions on such pressing business concerns as general application risk and control considerations for complying with Sarbanes-Oxley, application control, access security, general IT controls related to applications, implementation controls and considerations, documentation, testing, addressing deficiencies and reporting, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) compliance software, and automated testing tools. The reader will benefit from Protiviti's experience assisting companies as they document, evaluate and improve their internal control over financial reporting.

Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Managing Application Risks and Controls builds on our prior publications by providing more specific guidance on how to identify relevant applications and the related risks that are important to SOX compliance, and how to most effectively test the controls that mitigate these risks. The questions listed in this document are ones that have arisen in our discussions with clients and others in the marketplace who frequently deal with SOX compliance matters and are focused on improving internal control over their critical business applications. While the broader context is organizations' efforts to address Sarbanes-Oxley, the questions addressed here are relevant to anyone interested in improving and relying on their applications' data integrity, regardless of their compliance initiatives.

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