"David Erbas-White" <✉arachneering.com> wrote in message 
news:✉forums.codegear.com...

> Allen Bauer wrote:
>
> Sorry, I have to call BS on this one...
>
> This 'problem' only existed for a year once the accounting method
> changed.  As a programmer, you should easily be able to figure out the
> paradigm.

AFAIK what you state here is correct *as far as it goes*. But that is not 
the only disruption caused by SOX. The issue is, as I undertsand it, 
"forward-looking statements" - which is what a roadmap is. Under SOX it was 
possible that such a statement could be construed as a promise to deliver 
such features in return for a customer purchase *now*. That would mean, 
simply by stating that feature X is being planned or worked on for a future, 
from that moment, revenue for sales of the current version could only be 
booked once that feature was actually delivered.


At the moment SOX was passed, as with all such vague and hastily crafted 
regulation, there was much confusion as to what all the implications of it 
were; so much so that a whole industry of "compliance" consultants quickly 
appeared promising (for mega$dollars) to advise and guide companies through 
the new minefield.


In the end I still don't know if a roadmap could indeed cause that trouble 
under SOX, but reading what I could of the actual legislation and various 
"guidance" documents at the time, it certainly appeared to be the case. So 
at the time it was perfectly understandable for a company to put the kibosh 
on such statements *at least until they could figure it out*.


-- 
Wayne Niddery (TeamB)