Financial Compliance — SOX

Overview

SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) Section 302 and 404 require publicly traded companies to maintain documented internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR). For e-commerce, this means implementing controls across the order-to-cash and procure-to-pay cycles: segregation of duties (no single person can initiate and approve a financial transaction), approval workflows for high-value transactions, automated reconciliation, and immutable audit evidence. SOX compliance is primarily a process and documentation challenge, not a software challenge — but the systems you build must generate auditable evidence that controls are operating.

When to Use This Skill

• When your company is preparing for an IPO and must establish SOX-compliant ICFR
• When external auditors are requesting evidence of IT General Controls for your e-commerce platform
• When building approval workflows that demonstrate segregation of duties
• When designing access controls for systems that feed financial statements
• When remediating a material weakness or significant deficiency identified by an auditor

Core Instructions

Step 1: Map your financial data flows and control points

Before any configuration or code, document which systems contain financial data and what controls apply. SOX auditors want to see this documentation: