Financial Controls
Overview
Financial controls are the policies and procedures that keep numbers reliable and assets safe. They should match the company’s size and risk — neither theatrical nor absent.
When to Use
- Control gap assessments
- Pre-audit and SOX-like readiness
- Scaling finance team processes
- Responding to errors or fraud incidents
Core Practices
- Segregation of duties for critical processes
- Authorization matrices for spend and payments
- Reconciliations with review evidence
- System access controls and audit trails
- Exception monitoring and escalation
- Document controls so they survive turnover
Principles
- Controls should prevent or detect material issues efficiently
- Over-control creates workarounds that increase risk
- Automation can embed control better than manual checklists
- Tone at the top determines whether controls are real
Verification
- Key processes have defined control owners
- Segregation gaps are known and mitigated
- Control failures trigger remediation, not only blame