Conference to Provide Important Guidance on Section 404

Conference to Provide Important Guidance on Section 404

By Paul D. Warner

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has unanimously approved auditing standard “An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction With an Audit of Financial Statements.” This standard applies only to publicly owned companies, though internal controls also are required by privately owned companies. Once the Securities and Exchange Commission approves the standard, it may well take court cases to resolve the applicability of the standard to privately owned companies.

Discussion of this standard, which complements the SEC’s final rule on management’s reports on internal controls over financial reporting, and its impact on public companies, as well as privately owned ones, will lead off the April 26 Section 404 Conference. Sponsored by the Society’s Accounting and Auditing Oversight Committee, the event will focus on “Practical Guidance and Pitfalls to Avoid in the New Era of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.”

The conference is designed to provide participants with an understanding of and practical guidance for implementing internal control reporting and auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It is geared toward chief financial officers, controllers and assistant controllers, internal auditors, audit committee members and independent auditors, as well as educators and others interested in understanding managements’ and auditors’ reports on internal control.

Date: Monday, April 26
Time: 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Location: Hotel Pennsylvania, 401 Seventh Ave. (between 32nd and 33rd streets), New York, N.Y.

Presenters:

Alec G. Arons, partner, business risk services, Ernst & Young
Andrew D. Bailey, deputy chief accountant, SEC
Harriet Greenberg, partner, Friedman Alpren & Green LLP
Joseph M. Leone, vice chairman and CFO, CIT Group Inc.
Laura J. Phillips, assistant chief auditor, PCAOB
Paul J. Sobel, vice president, internal audit, Mirant Corporation.

Paul D. Warner, chair of the Section 404 Conference, is chair and professor of the Accounting, Taxation and Legal Studies in Business Department at Hofstra University.