Manager-s Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act- Improving Internal Controls to Prevent Fraud Description:

Manager's Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Improving Internal Controls to Prevent Fraud review:
5 stars (prompt delivery) - It is important to receive email from seller to confirm the transaction, which he/she did. Prompt delivery. Book arrived in good condition as stated.
2 stars (The Title is Wrong) - I feel duped.



I bought this book because it's titled "Manager's Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," but it's not about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: this book is about the author's "Control Smart" approach to internal controls. And although it is well written, and it appears that the correct implementation of "Control Smart" could assist a company in achieving SOX compliance, it's a burger when I ordered a ham sandwich.



Below are some questions that I believe a book with such a title should answer--this book answered none of these questions:



- Who is Sarbanes? Who is Oxley?



- How was the legislation developed?



- Describe the legislation e.g. is it 200 pages of dense type,or is it something that could be included an appendix?



- What changes, specifically, are required by the law?



- What's the history of internal control study and analysis?



- Would the SOX legislation have prevented any corporate scandals; or rather, will this legislation be effective, and if so how?



- If there are contentions about the legislation (there are), what are some of the issues?



Scott Green wrote an OK book, I thought the case studies were excellent, about an approach to managing a company's internal controls. Someone then took this text and put it in a misleading wrapper that promised content about different, albeit related, material.


1 stars (Far too general to be of value) - Read this one a year ago and found it to be very non specific in the elements necessary to gain compliance. Now after three SOX engagements and having to deal with the intricacies of 404, this book stands as a poor introduction to the enormity of the task to follow.



If however one wishes to get a brief overview of what compliance and governance will mean to public companies, read away.