Top expense system providers are pointing to external audits as proof of their ability to assist companies with compliance of Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
Gelco Expense Management announced May 31 that it had received the most favorable rating on its semiannual Statement on Auditing Standards 70 Type II Report. The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted the reports two years ago to clarify corporate compliance rules outlined by Sarbanes-Oxley
(BTN, Feb. 7, 2005). That means the audit from a service provider takes the place of a company's need for its own auditor to review the process, instead allowing the company to simply provide the expense management company's report to its own auditor.
Deloitte & Touche LLP performed Gelco's audit, which evaluates the expense management process from expense capture through post-process auditing, according to Karen Beckwith, Gelco Information Network's president and CEO. As a business services provider that often handles companies' outsourced transactions in expense management, the audit ensures that those transactions are managed properly as well as assuring the processes and controls of the supplier's solutions, according to the company.
Concur Technologies also undergoes regular SAS 70 Type II audits on both its expense services and hosting facilities, according to Chris Juneau, Concur's senior director of product marketing.
"Concur's SAS 70 Type II attestation provides assurance of the integrity of Concur Expense Service and the operations and development processes supporting it," Juneau said. "Recognizing the need for nothing less than a world-class hosting facility, Concur's solutions also are hosted by world standard hosting providers that have SAS-70 Type II attestations."
In addition to the SEC-adopted audit, Concur Technologies since 2004 has relied on the International Organization for Standardization's audit process for certification, the world standard for IT security management practices. Concur is the only corporate expense management that gets certification from both the SEC and the ISO, according to Juneau.
Expense management companies are not the only suppliers using the SAS 70 auditing process. Xign Corp., which provides services for switching to a paperless accounts payable process, also announced in May that it had received its SAS 70 report in order to assist customers with Sarbanes-Oxley documentation.