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ERP Systems on the Effectiveness ofInternal Controls over Financial Reporting John J. Morris Kansas ABSTRACT: Software vendors that market enterprise resource planning ERP systems have taken advantage of the increased focus on internal controls that grew out of the Sarbanes-Oxley SOX legislation by emphasizing that a key feature of ERP systems is the use of “built-in” controls that mirror a firm’s infrastructure. They argue that these built-in controls and other features will help firms improve their internal control over financial reporting as required by SOX. This study tests that assertion by examining SOX Section 404 compliance data for a sample of firms that implemented ERP systems between 1994 and 2003. The results suggest that ERP-implementing firms are less likely to report internal control weaknesses （ICW） than a matched control sample of non-ERP-implementing firms. It also finds that this difference exists for both genera（entity-wide）, and individual （account-level） controls. Keywords: enterprise resource planning; ERP; Sarbanes-Oxley; SOX; Section 404; internal control. I. INTRODUCTION The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 （SOX） requires companies to report on the effectiveness of their internal controls over financial reporting as part of an overall effort to reduce fraud and restore integrity to the financial reporting process. Software vendors that market enterprise resource planning （ERP） systems have taken advantage of this new focus on internal controls by emphasizing that a key feature of ERP systems is the use of “built-in” controls that mirror a firm’s infrastructure. They emphasize these features in their marketing literature, asserting that these systems will help firms improve the effectiveness of their internal controls as required by SOX. These vendor statements motivate an interesting empirical research question about the impact of ERP systems on internal control. Specifically, are firms that implement ERP systems more or less likely to report i