Today, Thomson Carswell and Issues Central, Inc., a leading provider of financial compliance software, announced a mining-sector specific version of Compliance Partner™. The new product, Compliance Partner™ - Mining Edition, has been designed to help mining companies that are publicly listed on either U.S. or Canadian-based stock exchanges to meet internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) challenges and regulatory requirements including Section 404 (Management’s Report on Internal Controls over Financial Reporting) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and CSA Multi-Lateral Instrument 52-109 (Certification of Issuer’s Annual and Interim Filings).
Compliance Partner™ - Mining Edition is the first software-based financial compliance product dedicated to the Canadian mining sector and comes complete with over 100 industry-specific compliance templates ranging from Reserve Valuation, Mining AFEs, Asset Impairment, Mining AROs, Mineral Claims and Production through to Financial Close as well as Entity Level Controls. The product offers a “start-to-certification” approach that covers all aspects of an ICFR project including planning, top-down risk-based scoping, entity-level controls, process-level controls, testing and remediation, and ongoing compliance beyond year one.
Important features include:
- Rapid documentation
- Automatic flowcharting
- Customizable compliance reporting
- Minimal IT investment.
The product comes standard with a tight integration with Microsoft® Office® including Word®, Excel® and Visio®.
“With the growth of the mining sector in the past few years, CFOs and finance departments are finding themselves stretched to the limit”, says Charley Best, Vice President of Issues Central, Inc. “We developed the product from scratch to meet the needs of both exploration and production-oriented firms. These companies face unique challenges such as complex processes with limited personnel resources in far flung operations. Our objective is to help the mining sector reduce the time and expense associated with financial compliance activities by giving them a sustainable head-start to meet the requirements of either MI 52-109 ICFR design and evaluation rules or SOX 404.”
The product development of Compliance Partner™ - Mining Edition was led by Catherine Connally, President of Issues Central, Inc., a Certified Internal Auditor with over 25 years of experience in the fields of mining, internal audit, and financial systems/ICFR.
Canadian-based mining firms that are listed solely on the TSX®, TSX Venture®, or those that are dually listed on both the Securities Exchange Commission and the TSX® will benefit from using Compliance Partner™ - Mining Edition. The product is designed to dramatically reduce the costs and potential business interruption associated with the new internal control over financial reporting requirements.
"We are proud to be bringing this effective solution to one of Canada’s leading sectors." said Don Van Meer, President and CEO of Thomson Carswell. "We feel this product will be a great asset to listed Canadian mining companies, at any stage of the financial compliance process. It is designed to integrate with work already done and to significantly reduce the time, effort and expense involved with completing the process.”
Compliance Partner™ - Mining Edition is available to Canadian mining companies immediately. For more information please call 1-800-342-6288 ext 4237 or e-mail carswell.compliancepartner@thomson.com.
About Thomson Carswell
Thomson Carswell (www.carswell.com) is Canada's leading provider of specialized information and electronic research solutions to the legal, tax, finance, accounting and human resources markets. Headquartered in Toronto, ON, Thomson Carswell provides integrated information in a range of formats, including books, loose-leaf services, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs and online services. Thomson Carswell is a business within The Thomson Corporation.
About Issues Central Inc.
Issues Central, Inc. is the developer of the Compliance PlaybookTM software solution for Sarbanes-Oxley geared to helping SEC-based filers comply with the requirements of Section 404 and Section 302 of the Act. The Compliance PlaybookTM is an award-winning product designed to provide public filers with a streamlined approach to the implementation and ongoing management of internal controls over financial reporting and related compliance activities. The company has offices in New York and Toronto and has provided Sarbanes-Oxley focused compliance products to a wide variety of customers listed on the AMEX®, NYSE®, Nasdaq®, TSX®, TSX Venture®, AIM® and SSE® exchanges.
About The Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation (http://www.thomson.com), with 2005 revenues of $8.4 billion, is
a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional
customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to
more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services,
higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific
research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson
has approximately 40,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries.
The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock
exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).
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