Internal Control
Articles in the "Internal Control" Category
Accounting methods and accounting standards are typically defined within your accounting manual, a key component of your accounting system. Your accounting manual defines your policies, procedures, and internal controls for Sarbanes Oxley and other compliance needs. There are two main accounting methods: accrual and cash.
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Author: Chris Anderson Published on: June 22nd, 2010
Categories: Accounting & Internal Control, Accounting Manuals, Accounting Policies, Accounting Procedures Manuals, Internal Control, Sarbanes Oxley - SOX
Policy management provides the foundation for your Governance, Risk management, and Compliance (GRC) program. Business governance is about directing and controlling your organization. Risk management is how you handle the various risks to your company — whether you eliminate, mitigate, or accept them.
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Author: Chris Anderson Published on: April 14th, 2010
Categories: Accounting & Internal Control, Internal Control, policy procedure software
Writing procedures is an exercise in controlling the cost of compliance. You’re trying to comply with customer expectations, management objectives, government regulations, and/or industry standards, making compliance expensive. Regardless of the reason for compliance, wouldn’t you want to write as few procedures as possible if you could still conform to the compliance mandate and keep your compliance costs to a minimum?
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Author: Chris Anderson Published on: November 16th, 2009
Categories: Accounting & Internal Control, ISO Quality Standards, Internal Control, Sarbanes Oxley Compliance, Writing Policies and Procedures
Historically, compliance has been the focus of most knowledge management systems. Documenting business processes with policies and procedures is required by many standards such as for ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems, Sarbanes Oxley Accounting and Finance, or Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But if we look closer at the intent of these standards then we see that we should be more concerned with control, to improve quality or reduce the risk of failure.
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Author: Chris Anderson Published on: June 12th, 2009
Categories: ISO Quality Management, Internal Control, Sarbanes Oxley - SOX, Writing Policies and Procedures
Small and medium-sized businesses rely on a steady, consistent stream of incoming cash – customers paying for goods and services with cash, checks, and credit cards. Many retail and service businesses have multiple people conducting cash transactions throughout the day. Creating a cash policy and cash procedure for important cash handling processes like cash drawer management, end of day closing, or cash in deposits, can be vital to protecting the life blood of your business.
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Author: Don Reed Published on: January 5th, 2009
Categories: Accounting Procedures Manuals, Internal Control
What is the difference between a well-conceived and well-written accounting policy and a poorly conceived and poorly written accounting policy? Of course, the needs of every organization are different, and the most important element of an accounting policy is that it helps the organization. Last week we mentioned the importance of gathering accounting policies into the accounting manual. Now let’s review some important points to consider when crafting policies.
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Author: Editor Published on: December 15th, 2008
Categories: Accounting Policies, Accounting Procedures Manuals, Internal Control
Using risk management techniques is an important component in creating the internal control required for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404. Risk management includes all the activities associated with identifying and reducing risk, as well as coping with negative events should they occur. Identifying risks and creating systems and safeguards to ameliorate them is one way to create a basic internal control system.
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Author: Editor Published on: November 10th, 2008
Categories: Internal Control
It has been more than five years since most provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 took effect (in mid- 2003). Many publicly traded companies, however, still seem to struggle with developing a confident understanding of compliance.
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Author: Editor Published on: November 3rd, 2008
Categories: Accounting Procedures Manuals, Internal Control, Sarbanes Oxley - SOX, Sarbanes Oxley Compliance
You may be familiar with the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) framework for internal control. We have discussed it in past articles, and it has received significant attention when referenced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) as an example of an “internal control” system as required by Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) sections 302 and 404.
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Author: Editor Published on: March 17th, 2008
Categories: Internal Control
With the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), finance and accounting departments have scrambled in recent years to put in place internal control systems as required by SOX section 404. Compliance with SOX and SEC regulations are certainly good reasons for companies to create an internal control system. Small and medium size business (SMB) owners might wonder, though, how this applies to them or helps improve their business metrics. Perhaps you have a few investors or creditors and need to produce financial statements, but you don’t have to worry about complying with SEC or SOX regulations. Or do you?
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Author: Editor Published on: February 4th, 2008
Categories: Internal Control
