Achieving Section 404 compliance as required under Sarbanes Oxley is an expensive task. There are many factors which add to and make Section 404 compliance both a complex and a costly affair. I found the following factors leading to a increase in compliance costs.

- Duplication of Controls
- Reliance on detective rather than preventive controls
- Complex control environment

All or any of the above can raise your company's Section 404 compliance costs. Having said this, streamlining and enhancing internals controls becomes a top agenda for company's. How then, does a company enhance internal controls and in the process also lower its compliance costs for Section 404 under Sarbanes Oxley. I have some pointers which may just get the company's management thinking.

1. Root Cause Analysis - Performing a root cause analysis of why controls fail in a particular scenario helps in understanding how controls can be remediated cost effectively and how new controls can be designed so that controls do not fail.

2. Replace Dectective Controls - Controls to be cost effective need to preventive in nature rather than detective. Preventive controls prevent a control from failing with the help of alternate controls. Detective controls on the other hand are just that, detective in nature.

3. Focus on Processes End to End - Addressing the process end to end not only ensures that internal controls have a positive effect on the business process, but it also ends up improving the entire business process.

4. Automated Controls - Manual controls and processes are by their very nature, slow, time consuming and costly. Using automated softwares for section 404 compliance can significantly reduce you costs. Automated controls are the key to streamlined and sustained sarbanes oxley compliance.