SOX Cost Cheaper than Expected for Small Companies?

Lord and Benoit estimated that Section 404 compliance costs for smaller publicly-traded companies are slightly less than $80,000, about $15,000 less than expected. The management assessment portion (404a) is about $54,000 on average with an estimated range of $15,000 to over $150,000 while the internal control evaluation (404b) has an estimated average of just under $25,000 with an estimated range of about $7,500 to $85,000. SOX Director Bob Benoit, a partner of Lord and Benoit and a COSO Task Force Member, expects that the comparative low cost will surprise some Members of Congress.

It is almost always good news when something costs less than expected. Nevertheless, it is important that decision-making benefits are occuring and that they reasonably could exceed even this lesser cost.