SOX Internal Control Testing for Compliance Auditors Training Course

Course overview

SOX compliance auditors are expected to determine whether controls over financial reporting are properly designed, operating as intended, and supported by evidence that can withstand management, external auditor, and Audit Committee scrutiny. The work is demanding because a weak risk-control mapping, vague test procedure, incomplete population, or poorly documented exception can lead to inefficient rework, unsupported conclusions, and late remediation. This course equips auditors to plan and execute defensible SOX internal control testing across business processes and IT-dependent controls.

Participants apply the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements through the COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework and PCAOB AS 2201. They learn to scope significant accounts and disclosures, identify relevant assertions and risks of material misstatement, distinguish entity-level from process-level controls, assess control design, and test operating effectiveness. The programme addresses walkthroughs, control matrices, sampling approaches, evidence evaluation, reliance on system reports, deficiency aggregation, and classification of control deficiencies. Participants also practise writing workpapers and test conclusions that clearly link risks, controls, procedures, evidence, exceptions, and remediation actions.

Instructor-led sessions use a realistic financial-close and revenue-cycle case, including narratives, flowcharts, risk-control matrices, reconciliations, system-generated reports, and exception evidence. Teams conduct a walkthrough, build a test plan, select and evaluate samples, document exceptions, and present their conclusions in a reviewer-ready format. Each participant leaves with a completed SOX control-testing pack: a scoping rationale, risk-control matrix, walkthrough record, test-of-controls workpaper, deficiency assessment, and a 90-day application plan for improving an active or upcoming testing cycle.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Scope significant accounts, disclosures, relevant assertions, and in-scope locations using a top-down SOX risk assessment.
• Map financial reporting risks to preventive and detective controls in a risk-control matrix.
• Perform walkthroughs that validate process narratives, control ownership, system dependencies, and points of failure.
• Evaluate control design against stated objectives, frequency, precision, evidence, and segregation-of-duties requirements.
• Develop operating-effectiveness test procedures, populations, sample selections, and evidence requirements.
• Test IT-dependent and system-generated-report controls by assessing report completeness, accuracy, and user-review precision.
• Classify control exceptions and aggregate deficiencies using likelihood and magnitude considerations under PCAOB AS 2201.
• Prepare reviewer-ready SOX workpapers and remediation recommendations that support a clear audit conclusion.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• SOX Compliance Auditors — who must execute and document tests of controls over financial reporting.
• Internal Auditors — who provide assurance over ICFR and coordinate work with external audit teams.
• Financial Control Managers — who oversee close, reconciliation, journal-entry, and reporting controls.
• Risk and Compliance Managers — who maintain SOX programmes, control libraries, and remediation tracking.
• External Audit Seniors and Managers — who evaluate management testing and assess reliance on internal audit work.
• IT Audit Professionals — who test IT-dependent controls and support reliance on financial reporting systems.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should already understand the basic financial reporting cycle, including general ledger close, reconciliations, journal entries, revenue, and key balance-sheet accounts. Experience with internal controls, audit workpapers, risk assessment, or process documentation is strongly recommended. Participants should be comfortable reading spreadsheets and tracing transactions through source documents, system reports, and approvals. Familiarity with COSO terminology and SOX Section 404 is useful but not essential; these are refreshed during the course. No legal qualification, coding experience, statistical software, or prior AuditBoard experience is required.

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor-led briefings with progressive work on a financial-reporting case. Participants analyse account balances and assertions, construct a risk-control matrix, conduct a simulated walkthrough, and test controls using sample populations, reconciliations, approvals, and system reports. Small-group review sessions replicate the challenge process used by SOX managers and external auditors: participants defend evidence sufficiency, assess exceptions, and refine conclusions. The final session converts the case method into a practical application plan for the participant’s own SOX cycle, control area, or remediation priority.

Course outline

Day 1: SOX, ICFR and risk-based scoping

• Sarbanes-Oxley Sections 302 and 404 responsibilities
• COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework principles
• PCAOB AS 2201 top-down risk assessment
• Significant accounts and disclosure identification
• Relevant financial statement assertions
• Materiality, location scoping, and fraud risk factors
• Entity-level controls and their effect on scope

Workshop: Participants scope a case company’s significant accounts, disclosures, locations, and relevant assertions and produce a documented scoping memorandum.

Day 2: Process understanding and control design

• Process narratives and end-to-end transaction flows
• Walkthrough planning and inquiry techniques
• Risk-control matrix construction
• Preventive, detective, manual, and automated controls
• Control objectives, frequency, ownership, and precision
• Segregation-of-duties conflict analysis
• Design-effectiveness assessment criteria

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated revenue-cycle walkthrough and produce a process map and risk-control matrix with design conclusions.

Day 3: Testing operating effectiveness

• Test objectives and control attribute definition
• Population completeness and sample selection methods
• Inquiry, observation, inspection, and reperformance
• Evidence reliability and sufficiency assessment
• Testing management review controls
• Testing reconciliations and journal-entry approvals
• Workpaper indexing, cross-referencing, and reviewer notes

Workshop: Participants test a reconciliation control from a supplied population and prepare a complete operating-effectiveness workpaper.

Day 4: IT-dependent controls and exception evaluation

• IT general controls and reliance considerations
• Automated controls and configurable control logic
• System-generated report completeness and accuracy
• User access, change management, and interface controls
• Control deviation documentation
• Root-cause analysis for recurring exceptions
• Deficiency aggregation and severity evaluation

Workshop: Participants evaluate exceptions in an IT-dependent revenue report control and produce a deficiency assessment with supporting rationale.

Day 5: Conclusions, remediation and SOX reporting

• PCAOB AS 2201 deficiency classification principles
• Likelihood and magnitude assessment
• Compensating control evaluation
• Remediation action design and ownership
• Retesting remediated controls
• Management representations and external auditor coordination
• SOX testing status reporting and Audit Committee communication

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a reviewer-ready SOX testing pack, including conclusions, deficiency classification, remediation actions, and a 90-day implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework, PCAOB AS 2201, Microsoft Excel, AuditBoard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions