More than a Financial Requirement

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sox compliance
More than a financial requirement
You must meet a new standard of accountability to comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The financial re-porting disclosure requirements of the act require stricter internal controls and reporting. Financial systems are not the only ones affect-ed by the act. Because finance shapes all of your business processes, your application systems are also impacted. Aprimo provides a structure to address key financial and non-finan-cial controls that dramatically improve the productivity of your mar-keting functions. A challenge of the Sarbanes-Oxley act is to manage and verify data accuracy. Aprimo builds controls into its marketing software to help you comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and to improve your data management. Through the Aprimo Planning & Financial Management solution, marketing managers can view financial plans and performance in the Comprehensive Financial Controls format that aligns with their budget and organization. The seamless Aprimo manages the financial aspects of your marketing process and interface to the corporate accounting system ensures the information captures information about each marketing project, which facilitates is accurate and current. Changes that impact the budget can trigger a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. It puts into place detailed procedures to review and approval process that, using the criteria you define, aligns manage access rights, to create and document business rules that ap- with the scope, subject and type of change. This provides the fiscal ply to marketing projects and to ensure appropriate review and ap- control needed to keep marketing costs in line with expectations.proval. Starting with the planning process, the Aprimo software tracks activities through budgeting, purchasing, payables and project com- Purchasingpletion. Once you approve the project and set the budget, Aprimo provides controls to electronically track actual financial commitments and ex-Planning penses and to manage purchasing decisions. Using an approval grant During marketing planning you create marketing campaigns and ini- process, you define spending limits aligned with your organization's tiatives. Aprimo provides a formal process for approving marketing departments. You also specify the required approval process, vendor activities. Aprimo puts a process in place for the review and approval criteria and other important criteria. The purchasing controls sup-of both the marketing concept and the financial plan for each market- port your vendor management policies by enforcing use of an ap-ing initiative. Business rules ensure review and approval is based on proved vendor list.criteria defined to ensure financial spending, content and objectives align with overall business plans. These controls apply to activities as Payablescomplex as a multi-media campaign or as simple as a flyer for a new After a purchase, Aprimo can facilitate the payables process by gener-product. Business rules ensure that routings and approvals are suitable ating a commitment number or purchase order number that is issued for the marketing activity. to the vendor. This tells vendors that this is an approved and budget-ed purchase and authorizes them to begin work. Budgeting You can use the commitment number or purchase order number to Say goodbye to the use of Excel spreadsheets that don't reconcile to track the amount your business owes to the vendor. When the vendor your accounting system and don't stay current with the general ledger. issues their invoice, they reference this number creating a closed loop Aprimo's Planning & Financial Management solution integrates easily between the Aprimo purchase approval process and the invoicing. with your accounting software to provide a seamless interface between marketing budget and financial activity and your general ledger. You can enter vendor invoices directly into Aprimo for routing and approval before forwarding to corporate accounting systems. Alterna-tively, you can enter vendor invoices into the corporate accounting system and they will automatically roll into Aprimo for approval.
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