Plan and Scope:
Taking a Top-down, Risk-based Approach to Your ICFR Activities
In order to minimize the time and investment involved in an internal controls project, you will want to make sure you have effective Planning and Scoping procedures in place.
What You Will Need to do in This Phase
- Understand the legislative and regulatory requirements
- Define roles and responsibilities
- Clarify resource and timing requirements
- Map financial statement accounts to business processes and assess risk on a quantitative and qualitative basis
Lessons from Other Companies
- Start early and give planning enough time
- Effective planning is a weak spot in many organisations, resulting in re-work, wasted effort and unnecessary confusion
- Take a top-down, risk-based approach when scoping
- Using a framework like that proposed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) is critical to ensuring confidence in your ICFR Project. It also minimizes the amount of rework you need to do
See how Compliance PARTNER, Internal Controls™ assists you during the planning stage.
See how Compliance PARTNER, Internal Controls™ helps you during the scoping process.