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Investors in the country's publicly traded companies will soon have access to an unprecedented degree of corporate data when companies issue their annual reports, which, for the very first time actually, will include facts about their internal get a grip on over financial reporting and provide a better degree of transparency.

To simply help people comprehend the new reporting, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers allow us two easy-to-use resource guides.

Each time a company measures its central control over financial reporting, it displays the vital processes associated with recording transactions and preparing financial reports. A business now must make public its assessment of the effectiveness of its central control over financial reporting, including a specific statement as to whether that control is effective and whether management has identified any "material weakness".

The business's independent auditor may evaluate management's assessment and express an opinion on that assessment. This information is always to appear in corporate annual reports starting in February 2005.

These new disclosures were put in place by the federal government in response to the number of business problems and corporate scandals that started with Enron in 2001. The reports are essential to investors because effective central get a handle on over financial reporting helps increase the reliability of financial reports and can be a deterrent to corporate fraud.

Buyers should think about that a weakness in internal get a grip on over financial reporting doesn't suggest that a financial misstatement has occurred or will occur, but that it might occur, to make use of these details properly. It's a warning flag.

A material weakness should be examined in the context of the company's particular situation, including consideration of the following areas.

• Fraud: Does the weakness contain corporate fraud by senior management?

• Duration: Was the weakness the result of a temporary breakdown or a more systemic problem?

• Pervasiveness: Does the weakness relate genuinely to things that'll have a persistent impact on financial reporting?

• Relevance: Is the weakness related to an activity that is key to the organization?

• Investigation: Could be the weakness linked to a current regulatory analysis or lawsuit?

• History: Does the company have a history of restatements?

• Management reaction: How has management responded to the material weakness?

• Tone at the top: Does the weakness represent a problem with the "tone at the top?"

Product flaws can happen in virtually any part of the financial reporting process, and can vary with a company's faculties, the industry and the company environment. The brand new disclosures don't handle the soundness of a company's business methods or its power to achieve financial objectives. www.s-oxinternalcontrolinfo.com.- NU research jt foxx