Although the primary focus in many corporate boardrooms has been on financial disclosure, many companies will also need to take a close look at their report creation controls and reporting procedures. Recent SEC (US Stock Exchange Authorities) studies indicate that many public companies have not consistently complied with requirements. Changes brought about by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including increased enforcement, more accountability, and tougher penalties, will likely turn this trend around.

After Sarbanes-Oxley, top executives must certify the accuracy of each annual and quarterly report. The required controls and procedures must be designed in a way that ensures the information required that must be disclosed is correctly recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified. New compliance rules require the CEO and CFO to certify these (and other) aspects for each in each quarterly and annual report:

• the report being filed has been reviewed by the CEO and the CFO;
• the report does not contain any untrue statements of a material fact or omit to state a material fact;
• the CEO and the CFO are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting for the company and that these have been evaluated within the last 90 days;
• the internal control over financial reporting provides reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of any reporting and the preparation of financial statements and explanatory text for external purposes in accordance with applicable accounting principles.

These requirements are designed to undercut the "I didn't know" defense for executives.

uniplicity|report enables companies to enjoy the benefits of reduced cycle times and improved productivity while performing the reporting functions necessary to meet governmental regulatory requirements. It helps keep your business departments, financial and other business systems, security, and employees to work within conjunction of the government rules with respect to creating reports. Uniplicity integrates, manages and checks the rules and processes for your business environment to meet both business and government guidelines in final reporting.

And is SOX not all about that?