Regulators and investors alike are demanding that companies strengthen their fiduciary responsibilities around managing risk, business returns, and accounting controls. Essentially CFO’s must manage the volatility of the firm’s value net and report the results accurately and honestly. The CFOs of ‘On Demand’ business face these challenges everyday.

In an era of re-regulation and increased scope of government, organizations are required to document compliance with more reporting and documentation. Compliance requires a significant amount of planning, procedure implementation and reporting, costing organizations funds that can be used for alternate investment purposes. Compliance focusing on SOX for example are presented below including a link that details SOX.

Sarbanes Oxley

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), introduced in the United States of America in the aftermath of Enron, has fundamental governance implications for listed American companies, their foreign subsidiaries and foreign companies that have US listings. It applies to all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered organizations, irrespective of where their trading activities are geographically based. SOX is different from the UK's Combined Code, and from codes of corporate governance adopted elsewhere in the OECD, in that compliance is mandatory, rather than ‘comply or explain’. This aspect, combined with significant potential sanctions for individual directors, is driving SOX compliance requirements through the supply chain.

While the Act lays down detailed requirements for the governance of organizations, the three highest profile and most critical sections – which were implemented in phases - are 302, 404 and 409.