Does anyone really expect payroll administrators and managers to understand SOX?
Absolutely. The SOX act is now a part of the way America does business; being able to handle SOX environments is critical to the future of payroll, and that future is a complex thing. Increasingly, payroll practitioners have more than just SOX to worry about. When payroll executives implement time and attendance systems to automate payroll, they often miss the chance to facilitate greater profitability throughout the entire company. These payroll executives are, of course, payroll experts. They are usually not, however, experts at project accounting or billing automation. However, the time data, if collected appropriately, can also be used to automate project management, project accounting, project tracking and project estimation improvement, as well as for internal, external and reverse billing automation – and any of these can become SOX concerns. Most payroll and HR executives know little about these subjects, but increasingly, they are being asked to rise to new challenges with SOX
