Comptroller v. Controller

[Baker, John]

        The Securities and Exchange Commission recently drew a distinction between these two words, which I had thought of as being interchangeable:

        >>The Sarbanes-Oxley Act uses the term "comptroller." It is our understanding that a comptroller position generally is the position in a government agency or non-profit organization with oversight responsibilities for the agency's or organization's primary accounting function. We believe that for-profit organizations typically use the term "controller" to describe this function. Therefore, throughout this release, we have used the term "controller" instead of the term "comptroller."<<

Securities and Exchange Commission, Disclosure Required by Sections 404, 406 and 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Release No. 33-8138, fn. 46 (Oct. 22, 2002).


John Baker