Sarbanes-Oxley costs an average of $3.7 mln for billion-dollar companies

Some 83% of the surveyed companies are deploying or evaluating new systems to automate financial processes such as billing and revenue recognition in order to achieve Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. About 40% are investing in information-security and other technology for improving their IT infrastructure, and 30% are investing in document and records-management systems. Average labor costs during the first full year of compliance are $3.7 mln for companies with more than $1 bln in revenue, and $1.6 mln for companies with revenue between $200 mln and $1 bln, according to the survey. Among the largest 10% of companies surveyed, labor costs are averaging $9.4 mln.