Oversight Systems Inc.

• Position: CONTROLS MONITORING

Oversight Systems Inc. has released Oversight 4.2, which it says extends its automated continuous monitoring for corporate equity management and stock option grants.

Building on the earlier success of monitoring procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, financial accounting and capital projects, Oversight 4.2 continuously monitors the transactions and activities in human resources and stock option administration systems to ensure compliance in every step involved in the process for granting, executing and accounting for employee stock options.

"The recent headlines of backdating and manipulating stock option grants have incited increased attention from auditors and regulators," said Patrick Taylor, CEO of Atlanta-based Oversight Systems, in an announcement. "Oversight provides the complete solution for companies to certify the compliance of their employee stock option programs."

Typical controls over stock option compensation are mostly manual because the process involves heterogeneous systems and multiple sources of information. Oversight "provides automated controls across all systems involved in the entire equity compensation process," the company says. Oversight integrates directly with equity management systems, HR systems and the general ledger to identify discrepancies, such as:

* vesting dates that are inconsistent with employment or grant dates;

* grant dates that fall outside of board meetings;

* strike prices that vary from the stock price on the grant date;

* grant dates that precede an employee's hiring;

* unqualified options...