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Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance – Forces Driving Change in 2022
SOX compliance — Technology, Automation and Outsourcing Are Driving Change Graphic

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.

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