Jillian Levick

Senior PR and Communications Manager

Robert Half Canada Inc.,
181 Bay Street, Suite 820,
Toronto, ON
M5J 2T3
www.roberthalf.ca

Infographics

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance – Forces Driving Change in 2022

SOX compliance — Technology, Automation and Outsourcing Are Driving Change

Amid rising hours, labor shortages and other post-pandemic challenges, organizations continue pursuing opportunities to transform their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance programs to embrace greater use of technology and automation, as well as opportunities to outsource different activities. There remains significant room for improvement but the results of Protiviti’ latest SOX Compliance Survey shows progress.

SOX compliance hours continue to rise

In 2022, SOX compliance hours increased at 53% of organizations.

In 2021, SOX compliance hours increased at 53% of organizations.

In 2022, SOX compliance hours decreased at 21% of organizations.

In 2021, SOX compliance hours decreased at 18% of organizations.

In 2022, SOX compliance hours stayed the same at 26% of organizations.

In 2021, SOX compliance hours stayed the same at 29% of organizations.

25% Average percentage of a SOX compliance program that utilizes technology tools

Challenges keeping organizations from automating control testing

Many areas of the SOX control environment are not conducive to automation 51%

Lack of time to spend exploring automation due to other priorities 49%

Lack of knowledge on available tools and technology 42%

Level of effort to implement, train, govern and maintain 42%

Lack of funding and/or executive support for automation 40%

Average percentage of key controls that are automated key controls

2022 50%

2021 33%

Technologies currently used to enable the SOX compliance program

54% Audit management and GRC platforms

40% Data analytics and visualization platforms

33% Segregation of duties analysis tools

33% Continuous monitoring

30% Robotic process automation process

30% Advanced analytics

28% Custom script and/or programming

19% Process mining platforms

More organizations are outsourcing SOX work

Portion of SOX internal costs for outsourced resources (both onshore and offshore): 41% in 2022, 37% in 2021

Portion of SOX internal costs offshored for internal resources: 35% in 2022, 26% in 2021

Portion of SOX internal costs offshored for outsourced resources: 34% in 2022, 26% in 2021

For more information, read SOX Compliance Amid Rising Costs, Labor Shortages and Other Post-Pandemic Challenges, available at Protiviti.com/SOXSurvey.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services