With regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission-Public Company Accounting Oversight Board roundtable telling business that relief from Section 404 is on its way (without giving specifics) and with SEC chairman Christoper Cox conceding that Sarbanes-Oxley blueprint was a great idea but "in practice, it hasn't always worked out that way", comedy writer Peter Phelan enlightens us about Zen and The Art of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance.

"As a first step on this journey toward Enlightenment, let's get any negative energy out in the open.
"Yes, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has generated a lot of expensive and time-consuming burdens on the compliance front. For example, last December the "Daily Telegraph" reported that BP PLC, Britain's biggest oil company, said complying with SOX costs it $100 million a year. The law has even inspired companies to delay an IPO or "go private" rather than deal with its requirements.
"And almost equally importantly, SOX has provided people with genuine-sounding excuses not to get work projects completed on time. We benefits pros have been down this road before as we lived through the advent of HIPAA. We've all heard the lines - "I'd love to help you resolve that medical claim issue, but unfortunately, I talk in my sleep so my knowing any details presents too much of a privacy risk."
"Just as HIPAA can mean Hiding Involving Privacy As Alibi, we're beginning to hear the vague explanations for the lack of a deliverable being attributable to complying with SOX - "Yeah, your food order for that breakfast meeting didn't go through because there was a SOX issue with upper management signatures down at the deli." (I won't try to come up with something cute for which SOX could be an acronym like I did with HIPAA - the X throws me every time.)
"Now, on the positive side, SOX presents benefit pros with a golden opportunity to add value and get positive exposure within our organizations. With some analysis of departmental procedures that we already know more intimately than anyone else, we can shine in the eyes of Finance/Legal."