3. financial controllership

FINANCIAL
CONTROLLERSHIP
MICHAEL ANGELO S. DE LEON
Certified Public Accountant

Financial Controllership

Financial Controllership is a management
function that supervises the accounting and
financial reporting of an organization. It is
responsible in the implementation and
monitoring of internal controls.

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What are Risks?

For all businesses there are risks that exist and that need to be identified and
addressed in order to prevent or minimize losses.

Risk is the threat that an event, action, or non-action will adversely affect an
organization’s ability to achieve its business objectives and execute its
strategies successfully. Risk is measured in terms of consequences and
likelihood.

The following process is used for assessing risks: identifying risks, sourcing risks and
measuring risks. Overall, you should focus on the high risks affecting your
operations.

Identifying Sourcing
Sourcing Prioritizing
Risks Business Risks
Risks Risks

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Risk Considerations

Considerations

• Evaluate the nature and types of errors and omissions that could occur, i.e., “what can
go wrong”

• Consider significant risks (errors and omissions) that are common in the industry or
have been experienced in prior years

• Information Technology risks (i.e. - access, backups, security, data integrity)

• Volume, size, complexity and homogeneity of the individual transactions processed
through a given account or group of accounts (revenue, receivables)

• Susceptibility to error or omission as well as manipulation or loss

• Robustness versus subjectiveness of the processes for determining significant
estimates

• Extent of change in the business and its expected effect

• Other risks extending beyond potential material errors or omissions in the financial
statements
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What are Internal Controls?
Management must control identified risks to help the Company:

• achieve its performance and profitability targets,
• prevent loss of resources,
• ensure reliable financial reporting, and
• ensure compliance with laws and regulations, avoiding damage to its reputation and
other consequences.

In summary, internal controls can help our company get where it wants to go, and avoid
pitfalls and surprises along the way.

DEFINITION OF INTERNAL CONTROL

Internal control is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors,
management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance
regarding the achievement of objectives in the following categories:

• Effectiveness and efficiency of operations
• Reliability of financial reporting
• Compliance with applicable laws and regulations

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Concepts and Objectives

Control definition reflects certain fundamental concepts:

 Internal control is a process. It's a means to an end, not an end in itself.
 Internal control is effected by people. It's not merely policy manuals and
forms, but people at every level of an organization.
 Internal control can be expected to provide only reasonable assurance,
not absolute assurance, to an entity's management and board.

Objectives of Internal Control

Internal controls are established to further strengthen:

 The reliability and integrity of information.
 Compliance with policies, plans, procedures, laws and regulations.
 The safeguarding of assets.
 The economical and efficient use of resources.
 The accomplishment of established objectives and goals for operations or programs.

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Internal Control Myths and Facts

MYTHS: FACTS:

Internal control starts with a strong Internal control starts with a strong
set of policies and procedures. control environment.

Internal control: That’s why we have While internal auditors play a key role in the
internal auditors! system of control, management is the
primary owner of internal control.

Internal control is a finance thing. Internal control is integral to every
aspect of business.

Internal controls are essentially negative, Internal control makes the right things
like a list of “thou-shalt-nots.” happen the first time.

Internal controls take time away from Internal controls should be built “into,”
our core activities of making products, not “onto” business processes.
selling, and serving customers.
Source: Institute of Internal Auditors, 2003
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Control Focus

Redefining the control focus

The new approach to controlling business risks may be characterized by the “new rules” of
“prevent and monitor” and “build in quality” as opposed to the “old rules” of “detect and correct”
and “inspect in quality.” This means a paradigm shift in the traditional viewpoint of control as
illustrated in the following table:

Old Paradigm New Paradigm

Only AUDITORS and TREASURY EVERYONE, including operations, is
are concerned about risks and concerned about managing business
controls risks
FRAGMENTATION – Every function Business risk assessment and control
and department does its own thing are FOCUSED and COORDINATED
(“SILO MANAGEMENT”) with senior level OVERSIGHT
NO BUSINESS RISK CONTROL FORMAL BUSINESS RISK CONTROL
POLICY POLICY approved by management and
the board
INSPECT for and DETECT business ANTICIPATE and PREVENT business
risk and REACT to it risk at the source and MONITOR
business risk controls continuously
Ineffective PEOPLE are the primary Ineffective PROCESSES are the
source of business risk primary source of business risk

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Internal Control Structure

In many cases, you perform controls Monitoring:
• Monthly reviews of performance reports
and interact with the control • Internal audit function
structure every day, perhaps without
even realizing it.
MONITORING
Information & Communication:
• Vision and values survey
INFORMATION AND • Issue resolution calls
COMMUNICATION • Reporting
• Corporate communications (e-
Control Activities: mail, meetings)
CONTROL ACTIVITIES
• Purchasing limits
• Approvals
• Security Risk Assessment:
• Reconciliations RISK ASSESSMENT • Monthly Risk Control meetings
• Specific policies • Internal audit risk assessment

CONTROL ENVIRONMENT

Control Environment:
• Tone from the top
• Corporate Policies
• Organizational authority

An internal control structure is simply a different way of viewing the business –
a perspective that focuses on doing the right things in the right way.
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COSO Components Defined
The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), was formed in 1985 to
improve the quality of financial reporting through business ethics, effective internal controls and corporate
governance. Based on these principles, they developed and published the COSO framework in 1992 as a
foundation for establishing internal control systems and determining their effectiveness.

Control Environment
• The control environment sets the tone of an organization, influencing the control consciousness of its
people. It is the foundation for all other components of internal control, providing discipline and structure.
Control environment factors include the integrity, ethical values and competence of the entity's people;
management's philosophy and operating style; the way management assigns authority and responsibility
and organizes and develops its people; and the attention and direction provided by the board of directors.
Risk Assessment
• Every entity faces a variety of risks from external and internal sources that must be assessed. A
precondition to risk assessment is establishment of objectives, linked at different levels and internally
consistent. Risk assessment is the identification and analysis of relevant risks to achievement of the
objectives, forming a basis for determining how the risks should be managed. Because economic,
industry, regulatory and operating conditions will continue to change, mechanisms are needed to identify
and deal with the special risks associated with change.
Control Activities
 Control activities are the policies and procedures that help ensure management directives are carried
out. They help ensure that necessary actions are taken to address risks to achievement of the entity's
objectives. Control activities occur throughout the organization, at all levels and in all functions. They
include a range of activities as diverse as approvals, authorizations, verifications, reconciliations, reviews
of operating performance, security of assets and segregation of duties.
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COSO Components Defined
Information and Communication
• Pertinent information must be identified, captured and communicated in a form and timeframe that
enables people to carry out their responsibilities. Information systems produce reports, containing
operational, financial and compliance-related information, that make it possible to run and control
the business. They deal not only with internally generated data, but also information about external
events, activities and conditions necessary to informed business decision-making and external
reporting. Effective communication also must occur in a broader sense, flowing down, across and
up the organization. All personnel must receive a clear message from top management that control
responsibilities must be taken seriously. They must understand their own role in the internal control
system, as well as how individual activities relate to the work of others. They must have a means
of communicating significant information upstream. There also needs to be effective
communication with external parties, such as customers, suppliers, regulators and shareholders.
Monitoring
• Internal control systems need to be monitored -- a process that assesses the quality of the
system's performance over time. This is accomplished through ongoing monitoring activities,
separate evaluations or a combination of the two. Ongoing monitoring occurs in the course of
operations. It includes regular management and supervisory activities, and other actions personnel
take in performing their duties. The scope and frequency of separate evaluations will depend
primarily on an assessment of risks and the effectiveness of ongoing monitoring procedures.
Internal control deficiencies should be reported upstream, with serious matters reported to top
management and the board.

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Control Techniques

Prevention techniques are designed to provide reasonable assurance that only valid
transactions are recognized, approved and submitted for processing. Therefore, many of the
preventive techniques are applied before the processing activity occurs. In most situations,
preventive techniques are likely to be more effective in a strong control environment, when
management authorization criteria are well-defined and properly communicated.

Control type definitions:
Preventive - Manual
Preventive - System

Examples of preventive controls include:

• Segregation of duties
• Business systems integrity and continuity controls, e.g., application design standards,
change controls, security controls, systems backup and recovery
• Physical safeguard and access restriction controls (human, financial, physical and
information assets)
• Effective planning/budgeting process
• Effective "whistle blowing" processes

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Control Techniques

Detection techniques are designed to provide reasonable assurance that errors and irregularities
are discovered and corrected on a timely basis. Detection techniques normally are performed
after processing has been completed. They are particularly important in an environment that has
relatively weak preventive techniques. That is, when front-end approval and processing
techniques do not provide reasonable assurance that unacceptable transactions are prevented
from being processed or do not assure that all approved transactions are processed accurately. In
this case, after-the-fact techniques become more important in detecting and correcting processing
errors.

Control type definitions:
Detective - Manual
Detective - System

Examples of detection techniques include:
• Reconciliation of batch balance reports to control logs maintained by originating departments.
• Reconciliation of cycle inventory counts with perpetual records.
• Review and approval of reference file maintenance (“was-is”) reports.
• Comparison of reported results with plans and budgets.
• Reconciliation of subsidiary ledger balances with the general ledger.
• Reconciliation of interface amounts exiting one system and entering another.
• Review of on-line access and transaction logs.
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Cash and bank accounts
• Do not allow a single employee to handle a cash transaction
from beginning to end.
• The cash handling function should be separated from the
function of recording cash transactions.
• Bank reconciliations should be performed on a timely basis
at the end of each month.
• Employees not involved with cash processing should
prepare bank reconciliations.

Page  14

Cash activities
Cash receipts
The receipt of cash should be centralized and customers should
obtain a receipt at the conclusion of each sale. Cash receipts
should be deposited to the bank intact on a daily basis.

Cash disbursements
All cash disbursements should be made by check and petty
cash fund system should be maintained for minimal operating
expenses.

Page  15

Sales and receivables
• Check sales figures from their individual source (e.g. invoices)
• If sales staff work on commission ensure that their sales
figures are valid and commissions are not paid until customer’s
accounts are settled
• Reconcile sales register with takings and credit card receipts
• Make sure that goods are sent COD or with a tax invoice and
obtain evidence of delivery

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Sales and receivables
• Ensure credit and collection policies are in writing
• Conduct credit checks on new credit customers
• Regularly age accounts and have an independent review and
follow-up on individual accounts on a monthly basis
• Ensure credit purchases are recorded as soon as the
transaction occurs
• Establish an accurate accounting system that maintains
agreement between the subsidiary and the general ledgers
• adequate segregation of duties on the following functions
 credit authorization
 collection (cash receipts)
 write-off of accounts
 record-keeping

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Inventories
Reconciling inventory to general ledger
Implement an inventory system that tracks all information so that
returns, damaged items, sales, and purchases would each be
accounted for and currently recorded.

Inventory count
Document the procedures for performing its physical inventory
counts. These instructions should include specific tasks to be
performed by personnel.
(e.g. completion of tags and control sheets)

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Inventories
Valuation of inventory
Establish a capitalization policy on all inventoriable items and
determine their unit cost, monitor sales activity and profitability
and then analyze slow-moving or obsolete items.

Disposal of obsolete items
Establish a policy on the disposal of obsolete items since
storage cost are still being incurred if these are maintained

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Property and equipment
• A subsidiary ledger or schedule that records important
identifying information for individual fixed asset components.
• Authorizations for approvals for the acquisition of new fixed
assets from senior management.
• Periodic physical inventory of all fixed assets and reconciliation
with the subsidiary ledger.
• A written policy regarding capitalization of fixed assets and
expensing.
• Authorizations for approvals of dispositions of fixed assets.

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Disbursements and payables
• Document purchasing and accounts payable procedures
• Ensure payments are on original invoices only – not copies or
faxes otherwise they may be paid more than once
• After payment is made, stamp or perforate the original
invoice to prevent reuse
• Put in place controls to check for identical payments
• Ensure refund checks from suppliers are handled by someone
other than the person processing the invoices

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Disbursements and payables
• Ensure the person who approves new vendors is different from
the person responsible for the payment process
• Check rapidly increasing purchases from one vendor
• Check vendors billings more than once a month
• Look out for large billings broken into multiple smaller invoices
each of which is for an amount that would not attract attention
• Once a month select a type of vendor and review each line
total and number of invoices for each vendor
• Check out the competitors' prices if you rely heavily on
one supplier

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Your Role as Process Owner

 General Expectations
• Acknowledge your responsibility for the design, implementation and maintenance of
the control structure within your business processes
• Contribute direction to identify, prioritize and review risks and controls
• Remove obstacles for compliance; remedy control deficiencies
• Continue or begin a program of self-assessment and testing to monitor the controls
within your processes

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Pam’s parable
After graduating from high school, Pam got a job at a car
wash station in the parking lot at a small mall. After two
weeks of sitting alone in her small booth it occurred to
Pam that no one was watching her. Since she was a little
short of money she took $10. The next day she took $20.
Several weeks went by and Pam continued to filch small
amounts of money.

Then one day the firm's part-time accountant showed up
at the booth unannounced. By counting her cash, the
accountant quickly found Pam had stolen more that
$500. When he confronted her, she confessed she had
borrowed the money without authorisation. The
accountant asked whether Pam knew someone would
check her work. "No" she replied "until you walked in
here I didn't even know what an audit was.”

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Payment twice
How often do you overpay a supplier or pay an invoice twice?
Office Supplies Pty. Ltd is a fast growing new business. The owner Bob
signs all cheques and keeps a tight reign on all parts of the business.
He believes nothing could get past him!

Anita is the accounts payable person, receptionist and office manager
all rolled into one. There are also several sales staff, but they are
usually on the road doing the deals.

One week a number of suppliers started ringing up wanting their money
as their accounts were overdue and Bob told Anita to stall them, as
there wasn't enough cash in the bank.

After another week went by and three important suppliers were getting
insistent so Anita tried to get their invoices processed and give them to
Bob to sign. But she could not find them anywhere. So she asked them
to fax in another copy. They faxed in statements of outstanding.
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Payment twice
Bob finally agreed to sign them as some cash had arrived in the bank
account. Then at the end of the following week Bob turned up with a file of
invoices that he had been sitting on. Anita madly processed then to get
them out by the end of the month.

Anita ended up double paying the suppliers. The amounts didn't match
because the statements were larger than the invoice accounts so a simple
check on similar amounts didn't match up.

Did the suppliers return the difference?
And if they did, did reliable Anita bank the cheques into the business's
bank amount or did she get them endorsed over to her account?
And what would stop Anita adding in another invoice?

Page  26

Payment twice
She could take a copy of an invoice for a small amount of money and send
it through the system twice and pocket the refund when sent back from the
supplier. Anita has an inordinate amount of responsibility in the business.
She is under great pressure to handle all her duties and consequently is
not as thorough as she might think she is or would like to be.

Page  27

3. financial controllership

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3. financial controllership