Sarbanes-Oxley Ongoing Compliance Guide: Key Processes and Summary Checklists

Continuous Monitoring Tool Considerations

In evaluating continuous monitoring tools, the following functions should be considered:

Functions to Consider When Evaluating Continuous Monitoring Tools

	Monitoring beyond just the ERP application. An organization should seek to have the ability to access all source systems. This provides a comprehensive data set for an independent analysis versus the qualified assertions existent in exclusive ERP monitoring.
	Single-exception identification. In other words, a monitoring system that only identifies an exception one time. For example, if an application is being monitored and reported on daily and an exception is documented today, this same exception should not show on the exception log again tomorrow with newly identified exceptions. This duplicate reporting would warrant reconciliation, which requires resource time and attention and increases cost.
	False-positive minimization. Certainly there is a cost to implementing a continuous monitoring system and a cost to handling identified exceptions. The goal is to minimize false positives that require time and money to address.

A continuous monitoring application should provide a unified view of process ...