Which Audit Report to Rely On

Post by Larry Beebe

A U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 7th circuit had to decide which audit of an employer’s payroll reports to rely on. An audit report by the funds showed the defendant owed 1.8 million to the funds. An audit conducted internally by the defendant showed the funds had been overpayed by 1.2 million. The auditor of the funds calculated underpayments but ignored overpayments. The court decided this was proper defense it was the burden of the […]

Service Organization Controls and User Controls

Post By Sarah Phillips

Outsourcing services has become a popular way for Organizations to cut costs and to focus on their core strengths. However, a lack of control and knowledge over the behind-the-scenes processes are seen as major cons of outsourcing. How can an Organization be sure the service provider has good practices in place? Just because services are being outsourced doesn’t mean information can’t be obtained about how the service organization operates and how they keep an Organization’s assets […]

Next in Our Internal Control Series – Authorization

Post By Kaitlin Cardozo

‘Internal controls in the authorization of reporting and processing transactions’ can at first glance seem like an exceedingly dry topic. What exactly does this mean? Why is it important to my company or organization?

That phrase and understanding its implications is actually incredibly important in any organization – whether it’s a multimillion, multinational enterprise, or a small not-for-profit with a handful of employees. In layman’s terms, the phrase means that: 1) all transactions that occur, and the […]

Entity-Level Controls; Information Systems

Post By Doug Falatko

In any internal control environment at any entity, there is one common factor that affects all members of the organization- information technology (IT). Information technology is the element that has the broadest impact on its users and is one of the least understood and least likely to be discussed. While this element of the internal control environment may seem like something to defer to the IT experts of the world, information technology is something that should be […]