Sarbanes-Oxley, said Haskell & White Managing Partner Wayne Pinnell, “has been the biggest boon for the profession we could have dreamed of.”
How big?
Pinnell said his firm has seen an increase of 20% to 30% in its audit business related to Sarbanes-Oxley, and a 10% increase in its corporate tax practice. At Stonefield Josephson, managing shareholder Rick Poole of the OC office estimated Sarbanes-Oxley has boosted business here by 25% to 30% and firmwide by up to 40%.
Nationally, the average cost of compliance with just the Section 404 internal controls provision of Sarbanes-Oxley was an average of $4.4 million in the first year for companies with sales higher than $5 billion, according to a Financial Executives International survey of 217 companies.