Website of the Month: FierceSarbox

CPA Journal, The,  Nov 2007  by Anders, Susan B

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FierceSaibox (www.fiocesaibox.com) is a member of the FierceMarkets family of websites. FierceSarbox is a free site focusing on Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance issues, paid for by SOX-specific advertisements that may be as usefill to certain users as some of the site's free resources.

FierceSarbox's home and main pages are organized in a consistent, easy-to-navigate format Tabs at the top of the home and main pages offer connections to FierceFinance, FierceCIO, and the FierceMarkets index of related sites. Linked pages open in the original window, and the other sites follow a similar layout

Menu tabs at the top of the home and main pages point to home, news, events, whitepapers, webinars, and TechFinder. The menu bar also offers links to log in, register, advertise, and contact the webmaster. The home and news pages are exclusive to FierceSarbox, while the other features are housed under FierceFinance.

The top and center of the Homepage are dedicated to the latest news, providing an introduction, link to the full article, and keyword tags to related articles. The left side of the homepage offers connections to FierceFinance, press releases, comments posted by users, top tags by topic, and a SOX glossary. The right side of the home and main pages features links to external blogs, whitepapers, events, and FierceMarkets publications.

Sarbanes-Oxley News

A large portion of the website is devoted to current news articles about SOX compliance issues, pulled from a variety of sources. The articles include a toolbar to e-mail, print, leave a comment, and contact the author.

Most of the articles offer keyword tags, links to the original source website or blog, and related articles on FierceSarbox. The home and main pages list the top tags, which ate subsidiary indices of articles on a particular topic. The articles are listed chronologically, with the most recent articles at the top. The top tags include regulatory news, PCAOB, small companies, NYSE, accounting, and accounting firms.

The accounting firms topic may be of interest to CPA Journal readers. A recently featured article, "Career Watch: Accounting Firms the Place to Be?," noted SOX is driving demand for both accounting and technology professionals, which may be why the Big Four were all ranked within the top 11 best places to launch a career, according to a BusinessWeek report Other recent linked articles were: "Audit Firms 'Forget' to Register," originally in the New York Times, and "More on Small Accounting Companies and Sarbox," a WebCPA.com survey.

The top news story at the time of this review was "COSO Issues Guidance Document for Comment," addressing internal control objectives over financial reporting, operations, and compliance. The FierceSarbox article links to an internal copy of the release, which includes contact information, related articles on the demise of the PCAOB's rules-based Auditing Standard 2 (AS2), and the release of the new principles-based AS5. Users can sign up for a free weekly newsletter that covers SOX news, corporate governance, compliance, PCAOB, IT, governance, and section 404.

Other Features

Events, whitepapers, webinars, and "TechFinder" are integrated with the FierceFinance website. The TechFinder page is organized as a topical index with the main headings of business solutions, web and application development, infrastructure and systems management, and industry-specific solutions. Business solutions lists more than 450 providers of accounting and finance software, and other subheadings include business intelligence, customer service, and general office automation.

Susan B. Anders, PhD, CPA, is a professor of accounting at St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, N.Y.

Copyright New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants Nov 2007
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