smartercommunity

FASB issues proposal for Impairment of Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets

chrisburd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:21:00 GMT

Earlier today, the FASB issued a proposal for impairment of indefinite-lived intangible assets (other than goodwill). The proposal simplifies impairment testing for these assets by allowing entities to first assess qualitative factors in determining whether the fair value of the asset is less than the carrying amount.

The Finance and Accounting practice at Resources Global Professionals has issued the following Financial Alert to help organizations get a handle on the proposed changes. If you have questions or if you need assistance, contact us and we'll put you in touch with your local Resources office. At Resources, we provide strong technical accounting, project management, internal controls and information systems expertise and can help businesses with all aspects of financial reporting, including assessing the impact of this proposed accounting standards update on your business.

FASB ISSUES PROPOSAL FOR IMPAIRMENT OF INDEFINITE-LIVED INTANGIBLE ASSETS (SUBTOPIC 350-30: INTANGIBLES-GOODWILL AND OTHER-GENERAL INTANGIBLES OTHER THAN GOODWILL)

January 25, 2012, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) proposed changes to simplify current guidance for testing indefinite-lived intangible assets other than goodwill for impairment.

Background

In September 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-08 (Intangibles – Goodwill and other: testing for goodwill impairment) which simplified guidance for impairment testing of Goodwill. During the outreach process of developing the final standard, the FASB received input from many participants in regards to the recurring costs and complexity of performing impairment tests for indefinite-lived intangible assets other than goodwill.

Current impairment guidance for these types of assets requires that impairment testing take place at least annually, by comparing the fair value of the asset with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount exceeds the fair value, then an impairment loss is recognized.

Proposed changes

The Amendment proposes that an entity would have the option of first assessing the qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not (presumed to be 50% or more likelihood) that the fair value of the indefinite-lived intangible asset is less than its carrying amount. If, after consideration of qualitative factors, an entity determines that it is not more likely than not that the fair value of the asset is less than its carrying amount then the organization would not be required to take any further action. If the conclusion is the opposite, then the entity would be required to perform impairment testing of the indefinite-lived asset.

In addition, an entity may choose to bypass the qualitative assessment for any indefinite-lived intangible asset in any period and proceed directly to calculate its fair value.

The amendments will not change how to measure an impairment loss and therefore, it is not expected to affect the information reported to users of financial statements.

Comments on the Exposure Draft are open until April 24, 2010.

Proposed effective date

The proposed amendments would be effective for annual and interim impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2012 with early adoption permitted.

Alternate configuration to streamline management of Financial Audits - Session Recap

stepheniebuehrle — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:33:00 GMT

Ted Demetral, Senior Data Analyst in Forensic Audit at Delphi Corporation and Adam Garshell, Director of Internal Audit at Morgans Hotel Group, joined the policyIQ team in helping our audience to learn how they can efficiently manage their audits using policyIQ.

We’ll recap the highlights of the session below. If you’d like, you can jump over to the recording of the session or follow this link to the related materials in our online Help guide.

Common issues without a tool for managing audits

Ted Demetral described the process prior to implementing policyIQ for Internal Audit at Delphi Corporation: the organization previously did not have a formal folder structure for storing workpapers, there was no formal naming convention, audit materials were decentralized and every region managed their own audit program. As such, auditors struggled to find prior audit workpapers. Delphi also did not have a consistent method for tracking approval company-wide. Then, in 2006, they implemented policyIQ…

In our January CPE session we referred the audience to previously recorded sessions and policyIQ Help pages to refresh their memories on how to customize policyIQ Page Templates for their Risk, Control and Audit documentation. This month, we focused primarily on the structure for organizing audit-related materials and the steps for most efficiently managing the audit process.

Here is a recap of the critical steps that we recommend:

Update your structure

Create a Folder structure that houses your Audit Programs (All relevant Tests per Audit) separate from Risks and Controls.

Ensure that these “master” Test pages contain information that is consistent from one audit to the next (security, Test Objective, Sample, Testing Steps, link to relative Control)

Copy Folders with Pages and Links

Highlight and copy appropriate Audit Program Folder with Pages and Links to set up all Test pages per Audit.

File into appropriate “parent” folder structure (i.e. 2012 Audits)
Alternatively, if your organization has a relatively small audit group and great confidence that you are aware of any changes to Controls and, therefore, to relative Tests, then you might prefer to copy prior audit workpapers to be used in subsequent audits (as opposed to copying the master test pages that do not include detailed workpapers and test results). While Morgans Hotel Group sees revenues exceeding $225 million annually, they have a relatively small number of people updating their Risk and Control documentation and performing testing. Adam Garshell, their Director of Internal Audit, prefers this method of preparing for upcoming audits.

“Check Out To Others” in bulk

Highlight all relevant Tests and assign pages (Check Out To Others) to Tester.

As a part of that assignment, if you are among the reviewers and one of the Administrators of the Test page, have them automatically checked out to you upon completion.

Leverage Dashboard, Export

Testers watch email and “Checked Out To Me”
Reviewers watch email and “Awaiting My Approval”
Reporting! Reviewers utilize Favorite Reports and Export features to make analysis and roll-up to management more efficient.

Make your audit process run more smoothly, efficiently and with greater confidence in your results.

With a configuration similar to what we’ve described here, Delphi’s Ted Demetral reported significant gains in efficiency and integrity of information in their audits. “policyIQ’s really allowed us to tailor the pages to fit our needs so as things change, we are able to adapt with it.”

With Ted’s and Adam’s help, we pulled together this list of benefits related to the implementation of policyIQ for Financial Audits:

Consistent audit process company wide
Centralized access to workpapers
Simplified administration of process
Ability to leverage audit programs and previous audits
Communication streamlined
Monitoring of status nearly instantaneous
Management and Audit Committee Reporting is simplified

A special thanks to…

…Adam Garshell and Ted Demetral for your support in developing this session and in addressing attendees’ questions. Thank you, too, to our attendees for your active participation! Here’s a peek at part of our Chat conversation:

Facilitator Comment: Related to a comment regarding moving Test pages out of the “By Process” folder and into their own folder
Customer Reply: “We have found that recommendation critical for reporting. Otherwise, items often become comingled.”

Customer Question: “How do most users control access to the Audit Programs and/or test templates (i.e., are non-auditors given access to unpublished audit documents)?”
Customer Reply: “We assign security and segregate viewing to the individual pages or workprogram templates.”
Customer Reply: “For SOX, we create groups with access to individual folders.”

Facilitator Comment: “Sometimes copying the previous audit [for re-use in current audit] is more efficient. Others require that the audit be started with completely blank templates.”
Note: Both are possible in policyIQ (re-use previous audit workpapers or start from Audit Program “master” test pages).
Customer Note: “You can never hurt anything (from previous audits or in Audit Programs). It’s always a copy.”

Customer Comment: “Every time I take one of your trainings, my whiteboard fills up with ideas. :)”

Customer Comment: “bulk changes = invaluable”

Customer Question: “We link our test templates to the related controls that management identifies each year. If you copy tests as you described, will the links remain intact?”
Facilitator Reply: “Yes - and that's critical, you are right. When you copy the folder and pages, the 4th option on the Copy Folder feature is specifically designed to maintain those links.”

Customer Comment: “It’s also beneficial to build reports to perform bulk changes on pages across folders.”
Facilitator Response: “…that's a great point. I typically work from Reports rather than Folders, because my reports have the columns and fields that I want to see.”

Customer Question: “Do any of the participants have any suggestions about how to use policyIQ for internal audit reports? I mean written reports for distribution to audit committees, etc.”
Customer Responses in recording: both customer responders indicate that they use policyIQ to report on information, then export the information to Excel (option within the print/export feature) to reformat and present in the desired layout for audit committee and others.
Customer Response: “We also do manual reports but we use policyIQ for our deficiency logs that are requested by external auditors and others.”

“Available for Checkout”: Black Hole of policyIQ or Misunderstood Gem?

chrisburd — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:15:00 GMT

I find myself frequently saying the words, "I don't recommend using the Available for Checkout stage as a part of your process" - and I have a lot of good reasons. Available for Checkout essentially means this: a page in policyIQ is not published, but it is also not currently sitting in someone's queue to be worked on. You can see how easily these pages might be overlooked and forgotten. If the responsibility isn't spelled out, it's easy to assume that someone else will take care of it.

And then a funny thing happened. A few months ago, I found myself specifically recommending the Available for Checkout stage for one of our policyIQ users - for exactly the reasons that I would normally avoid it.

The client uses policyIQ to manage their Sarbanes-Oxley documentation, with multiple business units and locations. Some processes in certain business units are not in scope - but the risk assessments and controls are retained, and test pages are even created each year. For those units not in scope, the information is simply left in a Draft state so that it is available should a situation occur to change the scope.

The audit team, however, actively uses their Checked Out to Me queue to manage their workload - and several hundred pages of not-in-scope Risks, Controls and Tests really gum up the works.

We considered some options. They could simply publish the pages, but they need to be sure that their final audit reports, made available to external auditors within policyIQ, do not include these out of scope pages. View security could accomplish this, but then every auditor would need to remember to update the View security if an item were to be changed to in scope (or to remove security if something were discovered to be out of scope).

Ultimately the right - and simple - answer was to pull all of those pages into Available for Checkout and keep them out of the queue for active work.

After this experience, I find myself rephrasing my previous words to be more clear. "Typically, we don't recommend using Available for Checkout as a part of your active workflow, because pages may be lost or forgotten."

Client Survey 2012 – We want to hear from you. Yes, YOU!

chrisburd — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:14:00 GMT

Did you know that 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of policyIQ? It’s true – policyIQ has been helping clients manage content for an entire decade. policyIQ has changed a lot over the years, but thanks to our amazing community of users, the product has continued to improve as it ages. Much like myself. (Yeah, I just rolled my own eyes. It was just too easy.)

Changes in policyIQ happen because of our user community. YOU tell us what works and (often with a bit more conviction) what doesn’t work in the application – and we strive to make those improvements. And you all have made some fantastic suggestions over the years. Can you even imagine that once upon a time, policyIQ didn’t have customizable Templates for content?

As we move into our second decade, we need your feedback now more than ever.

Can you give us 10 minutes to take our 2012 Client Survey and tell us how we can improve the product and services that we offer?

We want to hear from every policyIQ user – from the casual, read-only user to the highly experienced Site Administrators. We want to know about your work environment, your training and support needs, and your hopes and dreams for policyIQ’s future.

Please pass along this policyIQ survey link to your colleagues who use policyIQ, regardless of their level of experience or degree of involvement. The broad range of voices will help us to better understand all of our users’ needs and create a better policyIQ for the next ten years.

Featured Feature: Bulk Changes in policyIQ

stepheniebuehrle — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:00:00 GMT

It’s human nature…we figure out the steps required to complete our work and then re-perform those same steps again and again. It is rarer for people to regularly explore alternate and improved means to accomplish their routine tasks. If this sounds familiar to you, we are here to help. We will regularly make a point to highlight a feature that you might not be aware of and let you know how it may be useful.

This time around, we want to be sure that you know that you can make changes in bulk. Any place where you see a list of policyIQ items in the table (Items within a Folder, Report results, Items in your “Checked Out To Me” list, etc.), you can highlight multiple items and choose appropriate options from the toolbar above. These might be tasks like:

Assign all Tests within a particular folder to a tester at once
Change or update a field that many Pages have in common at once (like a Status field or Owner field, for example)
Index several items at once into a specific Folder.

For more information and examples, check out these resources:

Forum post: “Make changes to a list of Pages at one time”
Help Page: “Bulk Changes”

Keep an eye out for “Featured Features” in our monthly policyIQ Newsletter.

Is there a feature that you recently discovered that is a life saver--or at least a time saver--for you? Add a Comment below to share it with others!

Top 10 Finance and Accounting Issues for 2012 from Resources' Expert

terririegle — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:55:00 GMT

As we're all aware, the FASB and the IASB have been focusing their efforts in the past several years on convergence activities to converge US GAAP with IFRS. As we move into 2012, Resources Global Professional’s Colleen Cunningham, Global Managing Director of Accounting & Finance, highlights some of the biggest issues that she sees for the coming year, including…

Revenue recognition standards expected to be finalized;
Lease accounting standards to be finalized;
Conflict Minerals;
SEC decision on IFRS.

Check out Colleen’s Top 10 Finance and Accounting Issues for 2012 at her blog.

Better manage information and cost in 2012 and you could be a winner many times over!

stepheniebuehrle — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:03:00 GMT

Consolidate management of standard processes in policyIQ

Work more efficiently by

streamlining hand-offs,
bringing automation to review and approval processes,
eliminating confusion around multiple versions of important information, and
availing your important information to employees in a centrally accessible environment.

Sign Up for Annual Subscription and Save

At the same time, you can optimize the value of your policyIQ Information Management Plan by signing up for an Annual Subscription. This plan includes the equivalent of two months free as compared to the Monthly Subscription plan. As we said previously, we also allow you to add users, as needed, throughout the year without the hassle of signing new agreements and you only pay for what you use—the remaining portion of the year for those users. We will not charge you for the entire year. This is not typical practice as software firms go--we're happy to be atypical!

You Could Win Two Advanced Users for a Year at No Charge

Bonus! Those with Annual Subscriptions as of January 31st will be eligible and automatically entered for a chance to win an additional two Advanced Users (at a value of $1100) in our User Giveaway Sweepstakes.

Of course you’re interested in saving money and having a chance to win two more users at no charge—so, Monthly Subscription clients, get in touch with us and let us know that you’d like to switch to the Annual Subscription!

New COSO Framework available for public comment: Have you reviewed the draft yet?

chrisburd — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:42:00 GMT

When the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002, publicly held companies were required to put a structure around their internal controls over financial reporting. The Integrated Controls Framework that had been created and issued in 1992 by The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) became a standard framework of internal controls.

On December 19^th, COSO issued an update on their Framework for public review and comment. The update is intended to help organizations better perform in the current environment. Per COSO, “Enhancements to the Framework are not intended to alter the core principles first developed in 1992, but rather facilitate more robust discussion of internal control.”

For those of you involved in risk management, compliance, internal controls, financial reporting or any other aspect of Governance, Risk and Compliance within your organization, take the time to review the new draft and offer your perspectives – and you can influence the next generation of internal controls.

This draft is open for comment until March 31, 2012.

What will $55,000 buy you? Make the most cost-effective investment available to you.

stepheniebuehrle — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:45:00 GMT

We often find ourselves being asked by new companies and existing customers to help them make a financial and functional comparison between policyIQ and other options available to them. Here’s the skinny:

If you’re interested in automating your anti-money laundering compliance efforts, centralizing and streamlining your FCPA process, or finally managing and distributing your policies and procedures in a secure and electronic environment, then you’re going to need to consider how that effort will be managed, accomplished and then supported on a day to day basis.

“Build-versus-buy decision points remain the same: cost, time to market, politics, architecture, skill sets, and strategic value”¹. While $55,000 a year might cover the salary of one junior project manager (per www.salary.com), with policyIQ, it buys you:

100 Advanced Users’ access to policyIQ
An unlimited number of read-only users with access to policyIQ
A policyIQ “Super user” to act as your ongoing implementation and business partner
Our Support Desk with a reputation for excellence in helpfulness and responsiveness
Our development team working continuously on new features and refining existing features
Our team of experienced testers
Our technical team overseeing and managing your database
Our data center hosts overseeing center, server and site security
All necessary hardware and software, relative maintenance
Regular upgrades to software functionality and features
Routine Training and configuration support
Access to a network of experienced project professionals ready to hit the ground running

All of this is priced for affordability, scalability and you can begin tailoring for your business needs immediately. There are no add-on modules and no additional development costs when you want to expand. You simply pay for the users who will be accessing policyIQ for anything more than basic read-only access.

In a related post on InfoWorld, Mark Lutchen, former global CIO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, now head of the firm’s IT Effectiveness practice says “Everybody knows that the more standardized you are and the more you buy off-the-shelf, the more cost effective it will be for both implementation and ongoing maintenance.”

Toby Redshaw, corporate vice president of strategy, architecture, and e-business at Motorola underscores Lutchen’s point saying SaaS is “a better sales model and return model for the enterprise...[it] incurs no hardware or software capital investment and drives maintenance costs lower still.”

It is true that we, on the policyIQ team, do not aim to meet every organization’s custom needs in various areas of the business. We do pride ourselves on offering a cost effective content management application that lends itself to automation of a wide range of standard business processes.

As you’re considering how to best utilize your IT, application and infrastructure budget for 2012, consider how you might consolidate the management and streamlining of multiple processes in policyIQ—and let us take it from there! We are looking forward to brainstorming with your process champions and helping you to realize cost savings and gains in efficiency in the coming year. Email us (Support@policyIQ.com) or call for more information (1-866-753-1231).

¹Traylor, P. To build or to buy IT applications? The oldest question in IT keeps getting more complicated as new options emerge. Here's how MCI, Motorola, Visa, and others are tackling the problem. InfoWorld. Retrieved from: http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/build-or-buy-it-applications-676?page=0,0.

Financial Reporting Alert

stepheniebuehrle — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:50:00 GMT

The policyIQ team is a division of Resources Global Professionals. Our organization issued this alert on December 19th and we want to be sure to pass it along to our policyIQ community. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out directly to your Resources Client Service Director or you may contact us and we'll help to connect you with your representative.

FASB AND IASB ISSUE COMMON DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS
FOR OFFSETTING ASSETS AND LIABILITIES

On December 16, 2011, The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued common disclosure requirements for the offsetting of assets and liabilities on the Statement of Financial Position (FASB: ASU 2011-11;Topic 210 Balance Sheet, IASB: Amendments to IAS 32: Financial Instruments Presentation).

Background

The differences in offsetting requirements under US GAAP and IFRS account for significant differences in the comparability of the Statement of Financial Position (balance sheet) for certain industries. As such, the users of financial statements requested both boards to address this issue in order to better enhance the comparability of the financial statements under both standards.

Offsetting, or netting, is the presentation of assets and liabilities as a single amount on the balance sheet. Unlike IFRS, US GAAP allows companies the option to present net on their balance sheets derivatives that are subject to a legally enforceable netting arrangement with the same party when rights of set-off are only available in the event of default or bankruptcy.

Main Provisions

Rather than converge on the actual requirements, the boards retained their existing offsetting models and instead issued new disclosure requirements to allow users to better compare financial statements presented in accordance with US GAAP or IFRS.

Entities are required to disclose both gross information and net information about both instruments and transactions eligible for offset in the statement of financial position and instruments and transactions subject to an agreement similar to a master netting arrangement. The scope includes derivatives, sale and repurchase agreements and reverse sale and repurchase agreements, and securities borrowing and securities lending arrangements.

Effective Date

US GAAP: For annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013 and interim periods within those annual periods.

IFRS: Annual periods beginning on or after January 1, 2014.

Disclosure requirements are to be applied retrospectively under both standards.

How Resources Can Help

We provide strong technical accounting, project management, internal controls and information systems expertise and can help businesses with all aspects of financial reporting, including assessing the impact of this standards update on your business. Please contact your client service director for more information.

ABOUT RESOURCES GLOBAL PROFESSIONALS
Resources Global Professionals is a multinational professional services firm that helps business leaders execute internal initiatives. Working as members of client teams, we solve problems, execute and transfer knowledge. Partnering with business leaders, we drive internal change across all parts of a global enterprise - finance and accounting, information management, internal audit, human capital, legal services and supply chain management.

Resources Global was founded in 1996 within a Big Four accounting firm. Today, we are a publicly traded company with over 2,700 professionals, from more than 80 practice offices, serving 2,200 clients around the world. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Resources Global has served 81 of the Fortune 100 companies.

For additional information, please contact your Resources Global Professionals Client Service Director. www.resourcesglobal.com 1(800)900-1131.

Wishing you a very happy holiday season!

chrisburd — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:41:00 GMT

We're extremely grateful for the opportunities that we have had to get to know all of you within the policyIQ user community. Of course, it is wonderful to know you on a professional level - what are your goals, what makes you successful, and where can we help. But I also love when I get the chance to spend a few minutes getting to know YOU, those things we have in common and the wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) things happening in your lives.

Just within the last year, I've...

Celebrated with you as you brought twins into the world.
Shared the process of buying a new home, and commiserated about all of the "little" projects that continue to eat up our free time.
Sympathized with the stresses that a new job brings.
Finally met you in person after years of working together, and discovered a shared love of theater.
Mourned with you over the loss of a dear pet.
Shared your excitement and apprehension as you moved your family halfway across the world for a new career opportunity.
Laughed with you over vacation mishaps worthy of sitcom writers.

Any one of our team members could be writing this blog post, and would have just as many great connections to share.

So as the year draws to a close, we want to wish you all - our friends, colleagues and community - a very Happy Holiday Season. We have truly enjoyed sharing all the joys that the past year has brought to you, and we wish all the best for the next year to you and all those that are important in your lives.

Season's Greetings! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And a very Happy New Year to all!

With just 10 minutes of your time, you can influence our next release of policyIQ!

chrisburd — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:48:00 GMT

Just last week, we told you about our goals for 2012. A few of you contacted us after reading that post to tell us about your goals for using policyIQ in 2012. We value those conversations, because it helps us to prioritize our efforts to deliver the most important features, training sessions and support services to our user community.

policyIQ has always been a customer-driven product, relying heavily on the feedback we receive from our users. In 2012, we’re taking that up a notch to bring you – our policyIQ user community – directly into the design process. We want to show you version 7 in its earliest stages of development (warts and all), so that we can polish the rough edges with your feedback in mind. (We’re mixing our metaphors, but we think you understand.)

It would be awesome if we could speak with every single policyIQ user at every step of the process, but that’s not practical for you or for us. Instead, we’re asking for volunteers to give us 10 minutes of their time to see a rough version 7, and to answer questions and tell us their impressions.

If you are interested in participating over the next few months, let us know! We’ll need some users right away, but we might wait and ask some of you to participate a little later. If we don’t reach out to you right away, it isn’t because we don’t value your feedback, but rather because we have too many volunteers for the first round. Contact us to participate in this early product design review!

Participate in International Anti-Corruption Day with policyIQ and Resources Global Professionals training

chrisburd — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:31:00 GMT

The United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are leading Against Corruption Today (ACT), a campaign to fight corruption across the globe. They have declared tomorrow, December 9th, to be International Anti-Corruption Day.

Anti-Corruption has been a hot topic lately for most companies, but in our business blogs, webinars and articles, we've tended to focus on the regulations and corporate financial impacts of non-compliance. The Against Corruption Today campaign focuses on the economic and social impact of corruption to regular citizens throughout the world.

Within their Call to Action Matrix, ACT recommends some familiar tactics for the private sector to improve the global economy and eliminate corrution worldwide:

Strengthen democracy…
Foster economic stability by enforcing zero-tolerance practices towards corruption.

A transparent and open business community is a cornerstone of any strong democracy.

Promote justice…
Enact policies covering gifts, supply chain, whistleblowers and other key corruption issues, educate employees about them.

Employees will work better if they feel confident that they are operating in a fair and just environment.

Bring prosperity…
Strictly enforce anti-corruption measures and use independent auditors to ensure compliance. Introduce “anti-corruption strategies” into the social dialogue (see Trade Unions).

In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of doing business through the added “tax” of bribes, the additional management cost of negotiating with corrupt officials, and the legal and financial penalties of breached agreements or getting caught.

Participate in International Anti-Corruption Day by learning more from policyIQ and Resources Global Professionals

The policyIQ team recently hosted a webinar outlining tactics for using policyIQ to manage your Anti-Corruption Compliance Program. Check out the recording, or review the wrap-up blog post from that session to learn more.

And coincidentally, Resources Global Professionals will be hosting a webinar next Tuesday, December 13th (12 pm ET) titled International Compliance Enforcement: The Need for an Effective Best Practices Compliance Program. Hosted by Thomas Robert Fox, Resources consultant and FCPA / Anti-Bribery legal expert, this session will explore the best practices for establishing an effective global compliance program. Register today to secure your spot in this fantastic upcoming webinar!

Looking ahead: Sharing our goals for 2012, including the launch of version 7

chrisburd — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:21:00 GMT

I love gearing up for a brand new year. There is something about rolling over the calendar that makes me feel as though anything is possible in the coming 12 months!

As the policyIQ team gets ready to greet 2012, we really do feel like anything is possible in this upcoming year! We have some amazing things happening, and we can't wait to share them with you. Our goals for the year are aimed at helping YOU to:

Consolidate and save! We will develop new ways to apply policyIQ for the management of business content and processes so that organizations may consolidate processes within one system, save time and save money.
Network with other policyIQ users. We will foster the establishment of a collaborative environment of best practice sharing, open communication and idea generation among members of our policyIQ user community.
Enjoy excellent support. We will provide the highest quality of user support that has made policyIQ and Resources Global Professionals a valued partner to hundreds of companies around the world.
Take advantage of new tools. We will put our existing and new clients on the path to greater efficiency using a range of media to simplify and expedite the configuration and implementation of policyIQ.
Access policyIQ from any browser! We will launch version 7: a fully cross-browser compatible version of policyIQ with still more features aimed at improving the policyIQ user-experience!

Experience a more user-friendly policyIQ...from any browser!

It might seem like it has been awhile since our last feature rich upgrade to policyIQ, but don't let that fool you. Our development team has been hard at work on some truly amazing new things - and we are just taking a little longer than normal between upgrades to roll out a fantastic new interface with policyIQ version 7.

In 2012, policyIQ will be cross-browser compatible! For those of you who prefer Firefox or perhaps use Safari on your Mac when working at home, policyIQ will be fully functional on all of the major alternative browsers.

In addition to no longer requiring the use of Internet Explorer, we're updating the interface for better response times and more user-friendly navigation with features such as a resizable left navigation pane! We can't share too many details just yet, but we will soon be reaching out to some of our power users to review the upcoming changes and to solicit feedback.

Look for new ways to connect via social media!

We're also looking forward to bringing you new ways to connect with us and with each other via social media. Keep an eye out for Twitter feeds and LinkedIn groups to follow in the coming year.

Respond to our survey in January

We don't set our goals in a vacuum. We need your input! In January, we'll be launching a customer survey to help us to better understand your needs and wishes for policyIQ. Make your voices heard - and share the survey with any colleagues who are using policyIQ, as well. Keep an eye on your email for this important request.

We hope that you have all enjoyed a wonderful year in 2011 - and we're looking forward to helping you with your continued success in 2012!

Cyber Monday Special: Free CPE Credit! (Offer valid anytime! No restrictions!)

chrisburd — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:52:00 GMT

It’s that time of the year again! We’re all searching and scrambling to check off our lists. No, I’m not talking about shopping for holiday gifts; I’m talking about completing all of the necessary hours to earn those Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits that you need before the end of the year.

Are free CPE credits on your holiday wish list this year? Let Resources help you out!

Did you know that Resources Global Professionals offers a free monthly CPE event? You can register for any of our webinars, which cover a broad range of topics. In 2011, we've covered subjects such as successful project management, critical compliance updates, financial reporting updates, corporate sustainability, best practices in supply chain management and software selection. Every session is lead by a subject matter expert with vast experience in the topic, and focused on the trends, current events and regulations that are impacting our businesses.

On December 13th, Resources will be presenting the last CPE webinar of 2011 - and this one will be fantastic! Check out the information below, and register for the session today.

INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE ENFORCEMENT: The Need for an Effective Best Practices Compliance Program

When: Tuesday December 13th, 9am PT/12pm ET

With recent SEC and DOJ compliance rulings and the passing of the UK Bribery Act, the scope of international enforcement is widening. Both the US and UK have recently put forth what they consider current ‘best practices’ for an FCPA Compliance Program and many companies are feeling a greater sense of urgency to establish an effective global compliance program which incorporates this guidance. In this session, we will discuss the best practices resulting from the top three settlements in 2011 and the UK Bribery Act as well as lessons learned for your compliance program.

Presented by: Thomas Robert Fox, Resources Consultant

Thomas Robert Fox has practiced law in Houston for over 25 years and is currently a Resources consultant, assisting companies with FCPA compliance, risk management and international transactions. Most recently, Tom was General Counsel at Drilling Controls, Inc, and previous to that, Division Counsel with Halliburton Energy Services. Tom holds a law degree from the University of Michigan and writes and speaks internationally on a wide variety of topics ranging from FCPA compliance, tax issues and protection of trade secrets.

You've heard us mention Thomas Fox previously on our blog, as a subject matter expert, blogger and consultant on compliance and legal issues. We on the policyIQ team are big fans of his blog, and we're looking forward to this fantastic event on International Compliance Enforcement! We know that many of you are responsible for the various compliance initiatives in your organizations, and we know that you'll find this session to be extremely valuable - even if you have already taken care of all of your CPE requirements for the year. Click here to register today!

Check out our monthly newsletters for regular invitations and updates!

We provide registration links within our monthly newsletter to all policyIQ and Resources Global CPE events, so stay tuned through 2012 as we keep you informed of all of the free CPE that you could be earning throughout the year! In January, Resources Global will kick off a series on Change Management, which will be a valuable topic regardless of the area of the business in which you work. We hope you'll join us!

(If you don't receive our monthly newsletters, reach out to us at information@policyIQ.com and we'll add you to the distribution list.)

Put your business information to work for you--we put your colleagues in the driver's seat!

stepheniebuehrle — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:08:00 GMT

The policyIQ team worked to provide a different type of learning experience incorporating some new technology for our session attendees in November. This session was interactive and geared toward the visual and hands-on learners. We dug into the nitty gritty detail of what is possible with policyIQ’s Reports module. The participants were great sports—sincere thanks for your engagement!

We devoted an hour to helping participants take command of their business information and boiled it down to 5 key takeaways:

1. Start with a look at what you’re tracking and adjust as necessary
2. Three primary report types will serve most of your needs
3. A seemingly infinite combination of filters allow you to focus on key information
4. Display the information most valuable to you by selecting relevant column options
5. Increase your efficiency, effectiveness and productivity with incorporation of reporting “accessories”

Let’s review:

1) Start with a look at what you’re tracking and adjust as necessary

You primarily track pages in policyIQ. They are created from Templates which you customize with any number of a variety of Field types. You specify who should have read, write and approval access to your information. Remember that you can index or file your pages into any number of Folders (it’s a relational database—the page still exists only once for optimal version control). Upload virtually any type of attachment to complement or support your pages. Link relative pages to one another.

And, each one of these elements is reportable and among your filter choices!

If you find that you are not able to report on information that is critical for your process or decision making and don’t know how to improve your policyIQ configuration, reach out to us! We are happy to help you make adjustments.

2) Three primary report types will serve most of your needs

While policyIQ houses a full suite of reporting options for Pages, Forms and Users, we focused on those reports most often needed and used in policyIQ:

3) A seemingly infinite combination of filters allow you to focus on key information

What do you think of when you think of a filter?

I’m a nut about music—all kinds of music and I like to listen to it pretty loud (Paul Oakenfold is playing in the background right now). What I find way more pleasing than loud music is crystal clear high quality sound—the kind that you achieve with employment of a range of filters. They filter out the noise and extraneous sounds.

That’s what the use of appropriate policyIQ filters can do for your information. They allow you to narrow the scope of your results to only those items that interest you most. Check out the policyIQ Reporting Cheat Sheet for a full list of the Filter options.

4) Display the information most valuable to you by selecting relevant column options

And with the Summary Report Type where you are creating a grid view, you can specify column and row headings by selecting from the various options. The information that can be displayed is organized into four categories:

General Properties such as “Expires On” or “Folders”
Security including “Checked in By” and “Viewers”
Changes like “Published On”, “Changed On” and “Changed By”
Templates and Fields allows you to display any detail among the attributes that you have configured in your Templates. Display “Contract End Date” or “Contracted Amount”, for example.

5) Increase your efficiency, effectiveness and productivity with incorporation of reporting “accessories”

Categorize your Reports so that you can easily locate those that you tend to call on regularly.
You can even place a link on your Dashboard to your most frequently needed Reports by choosing “Add to Favorites” from the Reports module.
Have you noticed the “Print/Export” option in the upper right corner of the screen in the Table Toolbar? Explore your options here! In addition to the obvious print and export capabilities, you’ll find the options to view your report results in a number of different layouts. For example, you might choose a “Grid” view for your own analysis and the “List” view to export to Excel so that you can roll it up with other information that you wish to share with management.

Tools and Resources

If you wish to review any portion of our session or to share the wealth with a colleague who couldn’t join us, point them to the session recording or to the relative information in the policyIQ Help guide. We created a "cheat sheet" for Reporting in policyIQ that you will find in your online Help guide.

Put your fingers on the keyboard! If you would like to put your reporting skills to the test in the same way that your peers did in our training session, get in touch with us and request access to our policyIQ Practice site.

We aim to help you master your information and to work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Let us know if you'd like to brainstorm or talk through your configuration, reporting and other policyIQ questions.

Work smarter with reporting "smartcuts"

chrisburd — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:14:00 GMT

How many times have you been told to “work smarter, not harder” throughout your life? It was a phrase that used to make me crazy when I was younger – probably because like many teenagers, I was convinced that I was the smartest thing that ever existed.Then I entered the “real world”. (That happens to be another phrase that makes me crazy, but I’ll save that for another day.) It didn’t take long to realize two things: 1.) no one really cares how hard I worked on something as long as I accomplished the task (and they cared even less how hard I worked if I didn’t complete the task), and 2.) I have way too many things I enjoy in my life to spend all of my time working. So I had to learn to work smarter.

Work smarter in policyIQ with Reports

1. Do you have a lot of updates or changes that you need to make to your information?

Create a Detail Report and filter the content down to just those pages that require changes. You might not even be making the SAME changes, but now you have everything you need to work on in a single table, and you don’t have to search or navigate between each update.
If you ARE making the same changes – the “Status” field needs to be changed to “Complete”, for example – use the Edit > Change Fields option in the table toolbar to make the change to all pages at once.
If you are making different changes, consider adding a filter to your report that shows you only those pages that have NOT been changed today. As you make changes, the report will refresh to show you only those pages remaining.

2. Do you need to confirm that your content is all linked together properly?

Use Detail Link Reports – and filter in various ways to show relationships.

Just this week one of our policyIQ users asked if there was an easy way to determine if a Control Page was linked to more than one Process. She was used to seeing those link reports start at the Process, so we just flipped the report around to show Controls first with the linked Processes next. In five minutes, we were able to identify the handful of controls that spanned various processes.

3. Do you want to spend a little time over the quiet holiday season cleaning up old and potentially outdated content?

Identify your oldest content by creating reports to show you only those pages that were NOT changed in the last 365 days.
Break down the content by Template – one report for each Template type – so that you can better utilize columns in your report results. Save time by displaying the critical columns right there on the policyIQ table, so that you don’t have to open every item.
For those items that look good with no changes necessary, choose to Renew Expiration under the Stage menu in the toolbar. That small change will move them off your report, and you can focus on the items that do require updates.

There are hundreds of ways that using policyIQ Reports can help you to work smarter rather than harder, and we’re always happy to help you find those “smartcuts”. Contact us and let us know what you are trying to accomplish, and we’ll help you find the most efficient way to get there!

Take back valuable time with these 4 tools in policyIQ

stepheniebuehrle — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:03:00 GMT

Virtually every feature in a content management application is designed to help you more efficiently manage your information and your processes, right? I was afraid that I might run people off if I wrote a post titled, “Take back valuable time with these 107 tools in policyIQ”. Rather than trying to share the laundry list of opportunities availed to you within the application, I’ll focus on a handful that you may not have top of mind.

Templates – carefully designed, can provide you with invaluable information

There really are an infinite number of ways that you can put Templates to work for you—that is because you can add any number of fields to track variables of your choice. Remember, we’re talking about taking back valuable time. It is important that you track information that will be worthwhile to know, refer to and to report on at some point in the future. It is actually counterproductive to track so many bits of information that you have a hard time sifting through and identifying the information that is truly valuable.

Several features that will help you to be more efficient were touched on in our “Ten best practices for setting up page templates” post from earlier this year. The seed that I want to be sure and plant today relates to your Template Fields. If, after you have implemented policyIQ, you find yourself still tracking some information in Excel or you still use email to track down updates, you could add fields that will allow you to make those tasks more efficient.

Some policyIQ administrators recognize that they can report on content in various workflow stages (Checked Out To Others, Awaiting Approval, etc.) to get an idea of the progress of the content development, process or project. If that’s not enough information, add a field that will help you to zero in on the more valuable or actionable details. For example, you could add a List-Drop down field called “Status” and include choices like “Feasibility”, “Planning”, “Execution/Production”, “Controlling & Monitoring”, and “Closing”. This would allow you to report on all projects in the Execution phase, for instance.

Bulk Changes – you don’t have to make those changes one at a time!

Did you know that you can make changes to attributes on multiple policyIQ Pages at once? Really, this is the beauty of having your information in policyIQ (I guess it’s one of the beautiful things). It is relatively simple to track information, realize that the business needs have shifted a bit, and make adjustments to the management of your information accordingly.

Virtually any place that you can present your Pages in the table, you also have the ability to highlight multiple items (hold down shift or control while selecting items) and select from the options in the toolbar above.

So, go ahead and track some new information on your lease agreements in the coming year. Assign relevant documentation to the new member of your Field Management team. Move forward with your plans to more efficiently manage your process content within more specific sub-processes or tasks. If you are unsure of the most expeditious method for making the changes, reach out to our support team—that’s what we’re here for!

Form Activities – enjoy instant monitoring capability

If you still have processes where several people have a deliverable (monthly account recs, project review, questionnaires to complete, a checklist of tasks to perform) and you’re managing these processes using e-mail, Word or Excel, we can help you to take back valuable time and to improve the reliability of information surrounding these processes.

We have a number of posts touting the highlights and utility of policyIQ’s Forms functionality. I want to point out one feature that is standardized and ready to serve you as soon as you put your process online: it’s called Activities. Once you have implemented any of these processes using policyIQ’s Forms functionality, you can instantly monitor the activities associated with the process—and in real-time! Before you accept or delegate the responsibility of performing the ongoing task of inventorying who has completed their deliverable and who has not, ask us to help you move the process online. You will realize hours of savings in the first cycle.

Reporting – keep processes moving by automating a number of manual tasks

I mentioned above that you can configure policyIQ to track virtually anything that is of value to you. The thing is, with any system that you use to house your information, the system is only as valuable as your ability to pull information back out and to make use of it! The policyIQ Reports module is your passageway to more effective management of your information, processes and people and, therefore, to big time savings.

Here are just a few examples of how one might employ Reports to become more efficient:

Rather than devoting time on a routine basis to sifting through a stack of contracts or even an electronic folder with scanned agreements looking for those proposals involving commitments of $25K or more so that you can send them through the appropriate review channels, create a report and add it to your favorites. You will be able to zero in on those requiring your attention within a matter of seconds instead of minutes or even hours—and you won’t have to worry that you might have overlooked one.
If it is important that you identify all narratives that were changed in the last reporting period, you don’t have to funnel them all through you and make the entries yourself. Simply run a report which employs filters for the appropriate content (the Narrative Template, in this case) and the specified time frame (Any Change between June 1, 2011 and August 31, 2011). A standing recommendation will be to add reports to your favorite reports if you find that you want to review similar information on a regular basis.
Do you want to develop an action plan to follow up with all employees who responded negatively to the employee satisfaction survey, annual policy sign-off or 302 Certification? Done. Where the Form Activities can help you to instantly know who still has questionnaires outstanding, the reports module can give you quick access to the actual responses.

For more examples and information related to reporting in policyIQ, you can check out your online Help guide within policyIQ or use the Search feature to comb through relevant blog posts. If you’d like to dig a little deeper, I hope that you’ll join us in our training session (and earn CPE credit) on November 17th at 3p ET/noon PT where we plan to give attendees hands-on experience with the policyIQ Reports module.

Put your business information to work for you—we’ll show you how.

stepheniebuehrle — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:56:00 GMT

If your organization is looking for opportunities to better leverage your information and investing in systems to increase your productivity, you’re not alone. Resources Global has seen a 30% increase in Information Management related business in 2011 and this trend is reflected throughout the financial press.

As you’re reading this, chances are that your organization is already taking steps in line with this information management movement by utilizing a system such as policyIQ to assist you with development, capture, storage, distribution, communication, analysis and oversight of your critical business information.

We’re focusing our efforts this month on helping the members of our community to take your utilization of policyIQ up a notch—demonstrating how you can increase productivity by leveraging your policyIQ data.

Since nothing beats a hands-on learning experience, we’re going to give you that opportunity in this month’s CPE training session (Register for policyIQ Training Session, November 17th, noon PT/3ET). The policyIQ Trainer will act as a facilitator, presenting problems and information needs that can only be resolved using policyIQ’s reporting capabilities and the support of your peers to properly build, run and display report results.

We are calling on reporting novices and experts alike and are counting on your participation to make this a fun and valuable session. When you register for this session, please indicate whether you would prefer to be a “Driver” or “Navigator”—don’t worry, we’ll support you along the way and help you to effectively engage in the session.

Keep a close eye on our blog this month. We’ll provide you with resources that will serve you and your information needs. As always, if you are anxious to cover some ground sooner than later, get in touch with us. We can connect you with an IM professional and we can assist you in properly setting up policyIQ.

Is compliance about checking boxes?

chrisburd — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:49:00 GMT

I read an interesting blog post this morning, and I wanted to share and see if our blog readers had any thoughts to add. Eric Krell at the Big Fat Finance Blog (a personal favorite information source of mine), suggested in his latest blog post that compliance really should be a matter of checking boxes. I would bet that many gut reactions to that were similar to mine. "Yikes!"

But he caught my attention - and in the end, I agree with his assessment, albeit not with the way that he stated it. If an organization has built a culture of appropriate risk assessment, governance, ethical conduct and solid business practices, "compliance" is simply a matter of checking off the boxes on the various regulatory reporting that is necessary.

Mr. Krell also alludes to the fact that the actual effectiveness and implementation of the current regulatory environment is arguably flawed, and so it's not always quite so simple, but the primary point is still valid. If it is difficult for organizations to respond to regulations, perhaps they should examine their business to discover why.

A Change Management Tenet: Optimize User Experience

stepheniebuehrle — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:00:00 GMT

It goes without saying that, with any new process or system implementation, incorporation of a change management plan is of critical importance. I could write 10 blog posts on change management, but I’ll start by narrowing the scope of this post to how you can help your employees more readily adopt policyIQ by optimizing their experience.

Think about the various groups of individuals who will access your site and what each is seeking or aiming to accomplish. Then, consider how you can give them a break and take as much of the burden off of them as possible.

The simplest and most obvious area that you can address is utilization and promotion of the Dashboard tools. We’ve written a number of posts about the policyIQ Dashboard in the past. I’ll let you look to these previous posts for the details, but summarize here that the intention of the Dashboard is to help your policyIQ users—whether customers, vendors, line staff, technicians, managers, generalists, or members of the Board of Directors—arrive in one-click at their desired destination.

So, if you are expanding your use of policyIQ to a new area of your business, consider what the new audience will experience and help them to pick and arrange the Dashboard panes that will provide the most pain-free transition to your new use of policyIQ.

We also want to talk to you about things that you can do as you configure your site

Of course, it makes sense to employ the various security features of policyIQ to meet your information management needs. Additionally, we recommend that you consider these configuration options to optimize the experience of your business teams that have to use policyIQ:

Grant Users appropriate site access

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but we have seen several examples where users are assigned a higher level Role than necessary or are placed in an overarching Group so that they will most assuredly be able to access the materials they need. It really is worthwhile to configure a Groups and Users structure that is a reflection of your organization (locations, departments, positions, yes—but also task forces, project teams and other temporary assignments). If you have a representative structure, then you can put people where they truly belong and more easily assign appropriate Administrator, Editor, and Viewer rights at the Page level as well as appropriate rights to Folders, Questionnaires, and Reports.

Specify appropriate access to content

Along these lines, it would also make navigation of policyIQ easier for those who add new pages if you would specify only those groups who should be adding pages as the “Content Creators” in relevant Templates. This way, the users will only have those Templates available to them in the Create And Edit module.

Likewise, make sure that only the appropriate users are able to view specific Pages and Folders. By limiting the user’s view to just those Folders and content that you want them to see, you are descreasing the probability that they'll make an inappropriate guess and land in the wrong place (therefore looking at the wrong content or at no content at all).

As you set up your policyIQ site and write out procedures that are specific to your organization, consider the influences on your users’ experiences. We’ve listed some of the biggies here. Are there others that you’ve found to be critical or rewarding? Let us know what they are--we welcome your comments below.

Keeping up with the SEC and IFRS

chrisburd — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:51:00 GMT

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that keeping up with what is happening with the SEC and IFRS is even more difficult than keeping up with the Kardashians. There are new developments with regards to specific areas of US GAAP practically every week - and the buzz words change almost as often. "Condorsement" is the latest description of the direction that the SEC may be going in.

Luckily for us, we don't actually have to try to keep on top of things ourselves. Resources Global Professionals' Colleen Cunningham, the Global Director of our Finance and Accounting Practice, will do it for us. Check out her latest blog post letting us know about the latest developments. And follow her on Twitter for more frequent updates.

Anti-Corruption Compliance in policyIQ: Training review and highlights

chrisburd — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:08:00 GMT

*whew* Another training session under our belts. I’ll admit – I was nervous about this one. The topic of Anti-Corruption Compliance is one that fascinates me and I wanted to do it justice. There are so many different ways that policyIQ might help an organization with the various anti-corruption and anti-bribery compliance initiatives – and we had just one hour to hit the highlights.

While we focused on the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act of 2010 (UK Anti-Bribery Act), it’s also important to remember that there are many other anti-corruption laws, local regulations and related legislation that should be considered when building or strengthening your program.

Documentation is key

Through all of my own investigation and learning about the FCPA and the UK Anti-Bribery Act, the key takeaway for me has been that documentation is absolutely critical from start to finish. Clearn documentation is critical not just of the ultimate expenses that are made (so that you can defend your decisions), but also of the policies, procedures and risk assessments that drive your program.

During the training session, we stressed the need to document a variety of things, such as:

Policies and procedures – in detail and with as much context as possible.
Your risk assessment, the methodology you used and the support for your decisions around the scope of your anti-corruption programs.
Due diligence you conducted on your partners or third parties acting on your behalf, and be sure that they have documented their own internal policies, procedures, etc.
Every payment, gift, travel expense or entertainment expense made in a transparent way, so that there can be no question about your motivations or reasons for those expenses.

It was gratifying to hear this point reiterated by one of our attendees, David Roberts, Director at Wall Street Institute, who is responsible for the anti-corruption program in his organization. David followed up in chat to say, “Our organization is constantly reminding of us that. It is important to note that not only is this important for the company but also the employees. They are subject to fines and imprisonment.”

The potential for criminal charges and possible imprisonment should be motivation enough for any employee to get on board with this idea of documentation!

And then you can do this. And then you can do this. And then you can…*breathe*

I found myself talking a bit more quickly than normal while presenting the material – both getting excited about the possibilities and anxious about my time limit. While preparing for the session, we identified eighteen different things that can be organized into or automated by policyIQ, and frankly that was just the eighteen things that fit nicely in our table. We talked about Anti-Corruption Compliance using the UK’s Ministry of Justice’s guidance on six principles of compliance. Those six principles are outlined below, along with just a few of the ways that policyIQ might help an organization manage their compliance program.

1. Risk Assessment

a. Track Risk Assessments
b. Report on High Risk Areas

2. Top Level Commitment

a. Publish Ethical Conduct Policy internally and externally
b. Allow all employees and partners to easily reach Corporate Compliance Officer to ask for clarification

3. Due Diligence

a. Track all partners and third parties
b. Retain all Due Diligence documentation

4. Policies and Procedures

a. Ask high risk employees and partners to sign off on critical policies
b. Document specific situational advice and FAQs

5. Effective Implementation

a. Use forms in policyIQ to automate Gift Reporting or Expense Request processes
b. Track Training Attendance

6. Monitoring and Review

a. Build and execute audit programs
b. Periodically review partners and agreements

Great ways to learn more about Anti-Corruption Compliance - specifically FCPA and UK Anti-Bribery

We didn't go into detail around the specifics of the FCPA or the UK Anti-Bribery Act, and some of you indicated in the evaluation that you were hoping for more information about the legislation. There are so many nuances and details - and so many far more intelligent folks out there who have great information on the subject. Here are just a few of the places that I go to get more information:

- Thomas Fox's FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog

- Michael Volkov's Corruption, Crime & Compliance Blog

- If you are on LinkedIn, join the group FCPA - Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - Anti-Corruption Compliance Group

One of our attendees also pointed out that she uses resources from CCH, Deloitte and a variety of other sources found via web searches. I'll add Compliance Week to that list, which requires a subscription but is worth it for the wealth of information!

For more details about how to implement policyIQ's specific features and for an outline of some of the Templates that we shared during the session, go to the Anti-Corruption Guide in the policyIQ online Help pages. If you have any questions about those materials or if you need some help organizing your thoughts to get started, don't hesitate to reach out to us and we'll be happy to talk through it!

Peek here to see the magic behind the numbers

jenkohlman — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:41:00 GMT

OK, so you've just received an email from someone on our team (probably me) letting you know that your contract/subscription is up for renewal or maybe it says that the size of your site is over the free storage limit. You start thinking to yourself, is that right? Are those numbers correct? How do I check the accuracy of this information? Trust me; I'm not offended that these were first thoughts that popped into your head! I understand the hint of doubt and always verify the information that other people send me. You never know when a number can get transposed, or there is a minor typo!

I'm going to share with you a few quick and easy steps you can take to verify your site "numbers." The quickest and easiest way is to check the Administrative Overview on your Dashboard. Some of you may know what I'm talking about, others are thinking "huh, what is she talking about?" I'll show you!

Go to your Dashboard, click on Add.

The following pop-up appears, select Administrative Overview:

Voila! The Administrative Overview is now on your Dashboard! You now know how many "active" users are set up in your site, the size of your database and lots of other great overview information.

Looking for some more detail behind the users? You could create a User Report in the Reports module or Site Administrators can give themselves quick and convenient access to this information by creating an Advanced Search in Setup (where you can make adjustments in Groups and Users, if you wish). Of course, you can add as many details as you wish into the search but here are the basic filters and columns that I recommend:

Looking to try and reduce the size of your database? OK, this is one requires a little more effort and where I bring in my "experts." I can have your Account Manager or someone from our Support Team contact you to talk through your options with you. We can help work with you to reduce your storage costs by possibly archiving and/or deleting old data from your site.

We know that site management can be just another tedious task but a very important one! We don't want you to be overwhelmed or over-charged, so feel free to reach out to us and we can share ideas with you to help your site management become more manageable! We are always happy to help!

Surge in Control Self Assessment Implementations!

stepheniebuehrle — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:24:00 GMT

Phew! We’ve had a surge in inquiries about Control Self Assessments lately! What's more interesting is that, among the four clients that followed through with implementation in the last two weeks, each client had their own thoughts about how the process would best fit in their respective organizations.

Control Owners Complete a Detailed Page

For one of the clients that I worked with, the Control Self Assessment is a task or process whereby the Control Owner completes their own walkthrough of the Control. For this client, the configuration in policyIQ included the development of a new Control Self Assessment page template that very closely reflects the formal Test of the Control. The Control Owner completes one of these CSA pages each quarter and links it to the relative Control. The Internal Audit team can report on any or a combination of fields within the CSA pages.

Control Owners Responsible for Staying Up-to-date on Controls, Then Sign-off

A second example of the CSA process that I observed recently was one in which the Audit team was most concerned with holding Control Owners accountable for their Control documentation. For this implementation, a CSA Form Template including a few high level, generic questions was created. Additionally, the organization is providing Control Owners guidance regarding how to create an Advanced Search that helps Control Owners to easily pull up a list of their respective Controls. Form Activities are helpful in this type of process as they allow real-time monitoring of the status of responses.

Control Owners Review Relative Controls upon Sign-Off

In yet another CSA implementation within the last week or two, I worked with a client that wanted to record the sign-off of their Control Owners and, in doing so, wanted to make the process as straight forward as possible for the end users. We set up this process similar to the Form Template example above. Rather than direct Control Owners to create an Advanced Search to identify Controls, we added the Form Template to a Form List as many times as they have Control Owners. The Form Templates added to a List are then referred to as List Templates. This client customized each List Template with a link to the appropriate Control page(s) in policyIQ. So, there was only one Form Template with generic questions, but each Control Owner would see his/her own Controls linked to their CSA questionnaire. The bundling of all of the List Templates into one Form List per quarter makes it simple for the administrator of the process to roll-out the questionnaire and to monitor the responses.

In the fourth implementation that I supported recently, the team is following a process very similar to this one, but they are applying the process in their Operations department.

Why the surge? Do you need help, too?

With more than 40 different applications of policyIQ, I am accustomed to bouncing around from one solution to another (I have also presented policyIQ for Automation of Risk Assessment, Contract Administration, 302 Certification, Enterprise Risk Management, Internal Audit, Legal Documentation/Record Retention and Sarbanes Oxley within the last two weeks). What's more unusual is a spike in inquiries about one particular application, such as Control Self Assessments. Is there something going on out there that I missed? Whatever the reason, if you would like to talk about the use of policyIQ for Controls Self Assessments, the topic is fresh on my mind and I'm happy to help.

You may also read up on policyIQ for CSA in more detail in this blog post that we published about a year ago.