Sarbanes-Oxley Impacts Hit Home

People often tell me that they never have to worry about Sarbanes-Oxley directly impacting them. I often liked to think the same thing. Well, today I got hit. For those of you that do not know, I do freelance production work for CBS Sports, ESPN and Jefferson-Pilot Sports. Today, I got this letter from Jimmy Rayburn, the Executive Producer of JP Sports:  

"As you know, Jefferson Pilot Sports is a subsidiary of Jefferson Pilot Corporation, one the nation’s largest shareholder-owned life insurance companies.  Over the past year, JP has come under increasingly more stringent accounting rules and guidelines, as have all publicly owned companies.  Due to this we have had to put in place some new accounting and administrative procedures. Compliance with these new procedures will ensure that you receive payment on your invoice in a timely manner.  Failure to comply will increase the time it takes to process and pay your invoice."

"1. You will be required to sign-in and sign-out on all JP Sports produced events including Carolina Hurricanes Hockey. The sheet will be maintained by the AD or Technical Manager.

2. You will be required to use the invoice provided by JP Sports. Forms are attached, will be available on the truck or can be e-mailed to you in an Excel or PDF format.

3. You will be required to have the job number/work order number, event name and event date on your invoice. The job number will be posted on the side of the truck at each game.

4. Invoices must be submitted within two weeks of the event – only one event per invoice, please."

Having been doing TV Work for going on 24 years, this is the strongest set of payroll controls I have seen outside og CBS and NBC. In fact, many years ago, Broadcast Associates for CBS used to show up at events with a pile of blanck checks, with not a lot of control how they were paid out. That has changed since they moved us all to 'employee status'.

It does put more of a burden on me, but not enough to be considered a hassle. But this goes to show, compliance is everywhere.