As companies grow, the need for a formal structure of internal controls becomes more imperative. While some control processes appear organically during growth, there are often gaps that need to be addressed through a formal control plan. All companies face risks. Assessing and testing your internal controls regularly helps to ensure that your business is operating effectively, your reports are reliable, and potential fraud can be detected.
Control is associated with decreasing uncertainty regarding future events. Everything is under control if the degree of doubt regarding the procedures of all activities, and their consequences, are within a tolerable limit. Thus, the better the control, the lower the risk.
Good controls can also increase effectiveness, achieving the desired effect, for example, by reducing costs or time, of what is already done efficiently (activities carried out with well-structured processes).
Our control methodology is divided into five main focuses:
Control Environment
Risk Identification and Assessment
Control Activities
monitoring
Information and Communication
Our team of professionals helps you build, test and improve your internal controls with:
• Review of internal controls. Starting with identifying the risks your company faces, we'll assess the controls you have through document review of systems and through interviews with managers and employees. At the end, we will issue a findings report that includes recommendations and best practices.
• Testing of internal controls . Monitoring and reviewing internal controls means looking to analyze possible areas of risk. After detecting potential risk areas, we will select samples of documents and transactions, test adherence to policies and procedures to assess the effectiveness of controls. At the end, we will issue a findings report that includes recommendations and best practices.
Below are some areas where we can be doing our jobs:
Segregation of accounting functions and processes;
General risk assessment;
Risk assessment associated with the following types of transactions:
electronic financial transactions;
Transactions through cash movements;
Revenues;
Payroll
Billing Procedures;
Employee hiring procedures;
Inventory management procedures, purchases among others;
Legal procedures;
Information technology infrastructure;
IT control for specific applications;
General controls of the IT department;
Board Governance Risk Assessment;
Ethics manual;
Fraud investigation, deterrence and prevention.
Valini Consulting works with companies and organizations to create or improve existing control processes that mitigate their specific risks. Our professionals work closely with management to strengthen corporate governance, provide appropriate guidance and resolve control weaknesses.
Through the combination of internal control expertise combined with industry knowledge, it allows us to effectively identify and remove financial reporting issues, fraud and other potential risk in a controlled environment.
Contact us and you'll see how we can help your company assess and create an effective internal controls process.