Documenting processes in detail is one of the first steps in effective sarbanes oxley compliance. I have already written a detailed post on documenting business processes for sarbanes oxley. In the first year of compliance, documenting business processes takes up major chunk of the effort. To ensure that such efforts are kept at a minimum in years two onwards, significant processes, systems and control documentation should be updated regularly. Once changes in processes are identified, documentation should be updated. Such change in processes normally will get identified during walkthroughs or even may be due to a management decision.

While documenting such business process changes, it is important to ensure all documentation standards laid down. Standards may include flowcharts, narratives, and contol matrices. Such standardization of documentation ensures consistency. Considerable time savings can be achieved during review of documentation by process owners, external auditors and third parties such as regulators.

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