A top luxury brand in the home furnishings marketplace turned to Armanino to help design, perform, and document compliance testing for Sarbanes Oxley Act regulations. Working together with Armanino, the company completed its preparations for the external audit on time and with greater confidence in the results.
Every company strives for healthy growth and profitability. But growth brings its own challenges, especially when it’s years of double-digit growth. For the internal audit and compliance team at a major home furnishings retailer, “keeping up with expansion is a constant challenge for our organization,” says the vice president (VP) of internal audit and compliance at the retailer.
One area that became a critical issue was staffing for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act compliance testing. “We were having problems getting the additional resources and technical expertise we needed to complete our SOX testing in advance of the external auditors coming in for the official audit,” says the VP of internal audit and compliance.
Fortunately for the retailer, it knew where to turn for help: Armanino, the largest independent accounting and consulting firm in California. Armanino’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) practice offers a range of services to help companies meet evolving regulatory and business requirements.
Armanino quickly provided the staffing augmentation the retailer needed. “The Armanino consultant was an ideal match in skills and experience for what we needed,” says the VP of internal audit and compliance. “I really wanted someone who could integrate into the internal audit team quickly, take the lead on SOX testing, and who wouldn’t need constant supervision to get the quality of results we wanted. We got that and more with our Armanino consultant.”
Working as part of the internal audit team, the Armanino consultant designed the SOX testing for the retailer, conducted the tests, and created documentation of the controls and testing for the external auditors. All of the efforts were completed over the course of a threemonth period.
Major Home Furnishings Retailer
Relying on Armanino’s expertise and knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audit best practices helped the retailer deliver a high-quality set of documentation to the auditors. “Because of Armanino’s responsiveness and expertise, we were able to meet all the deadlines for the external auditors,” says the VP of internal audit and compliance. “Plus we felt better prepared for the external audit than we’ve been in the past.”
With a successful audit under their belt thanks to help from Armanino, the internal audit and compliance team can focus on keeping pace with the growing company. The organization continues to rely on Armanino for occasional assistance with governance, risk and compliance efforts.
"Armanino has been a great partner for our company and for my team. I really appreciate the responsiveness, executivelevel involvement, expertise, and reliability that we’ve gotten with Armanino.” –VP of Internal Audit and Compliance, Major Home Furnishings Retailer.
