The Top 3 Takeaways from the 2021 SOX Compliance Survey Report

The 2021 Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Survey, conducted by Protiviti with support from AuditBoard, revealed that internal SOX compliance costs continue to rise — but COVID-19 remote work has highlighted opportunities for companies to relieve manual regulatory compliance processes through digitization and technology adoption. Read the top 3 takeaways from the 2021 report, “SOX Compliance and the Promise of Technology and Automation,” and download your free copy of the full report. 

Key Findings from the 2021 SOX Compliance Survey:

1. Hours continue their upward march

SOX compliance hours increased for a majority of organizations, and among these companies, most experienced increases of 10% or more. However, Digital Leaders have experienced a lesser impact in terms of substantial increases in hours, suggesting they are gaining some advantages through their greater use of technology and automation in the SOX compliance process.

2. With technology and automation, Digital Leaders stand out

In numerous aspects of the SOX compliance process, from the use of technology tools to automating controls in different processes, Digital Leaders are significantly more advanced than other organizations. Digital Leaders clearly are leveraging these tools to reap the benefits they deliver in terms of greater efficiencies for documentation and testing.

3. Automation presents challenges

Implementing automation in the SOX compliance process can present challenges for any organization. Specific hurdles include the overall level of effort, change management considerations, stakeholder buy-in and overall investment — however, there is a roadmap to achieve short-term and long-term successes.

Download the 2021 SOX Compliance Report, “SOX Compliance and the Promise of Technology and Automation” to benchmark your SOX program time, costs, and efforts against the survey results.