COSTS OF SARBANES-OXLEY WEIGH ON SMALL COMPANIES

Dawn S. Kissi

NEW YORK -- Complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is turning out to be quite a headache -- and an expensive one, especially for smaller-sized companies.

Section 404 requires managers of public companies to establish and maintain internal controls with regard to financial reporting. The section also requires the auditing firms to not only sign off on financial reports, but also attest that management of the audited company made the necessary internal assessments.

According to a study published by Korn/Ferry International, complying with Section 404 cost companies an average of $5.1 million. Moreover, ongoing compliance to the law trims, on average, $3.7 million from a company's bottom line.

"It's a very expensive, very complicated thing," said Laurence Leeds Jr., chairman of Buckingham Capital Management, New York. "The dollar amount, in addition to the time required to comply, has and will continue to affect the bottom line."

In a separate study and survey by Financial Executives International, companies with sales of $5 billion or more spent an average of $4.4 million to implement Section 404, which is "39% more than they had budgeted. In addition, 94% of all respondents said the cost of compliance exceeded the benefits," according to the National Retail Federation, citing the survey.

Compliance to Section 404 couldn't come at a worse time. Retailers were caught off guard earlier this year when the Securities and Exchange Commission changed the way companies account for their leases.

The result of these two changes has caused dozens of companies to delay the filing of their annual reports.

Last month, the NRF sent a letter to the SEC expressing its concerns, while encouraging the commission to review the regulations.

"It has been too costly," said Carleen Kohut, chief financial officer, NRF. "We have heard talk of some companies wanting to delist as a result of the complexities of Section 404. I would imagine that for every hard dollar spent in complying, there are probably two soft dollars lost in terms of resources and staffing."