FEI Audit Fee Survey: Including Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Costs, April 2008

©April 2008, 17 pages

The purpose of this study is to help financial executives benchmark their annual audit fees as well as their costs of compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This study analyzes the results of a survey of FEI members. Here are some of the highlights: • Total audits fees for U.S. accelerated filers averaged $3.6 million for fiscal year 2007. This was 1.8% greater than the prior year. • Of this total, an average of $846,000, or 23.7%, represented the fees paid to the auditor for its Section 404 attestation. This amount was 5.4% less than the prior year. • Total average year-four costs of compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for those accelerated filers responding to the survey were $1.7 million. • On average, accelerated filer respondents with centralized operations incurred less total costs of compliance in 2007 than did those respondents with decentralized operations. A number of customized, industry-specific reports are available for $100 each. For information on these customized reports, as well as reprints and content licensing, contact Cheryl Graziano at 973-765-1000 or cgraziano@financialexecutives.org