![]() ![]() If your business had to eliminate positions due to the coronavirus, disgruntled former employees may be more likely to commit fraud or otherwise harm your business. They should give special attention to segregation of duties, as well as any employee turnover - including layoffs - or a change in responsibilities that could impair or break a key control. Organizations should think about additional security risks from bad actors outside the organization, as well as new circumstances that could encourage fraud. Use a classic risk assessment framework to determine which controls, if any, pose a worrisome risk to your company: The assessment will also pinpoint vulnerabilities that are of greater concern in a remote environment and help the finance team prioritize the financial controls that need to be adjusted right away. This will help them understand any controls that don’t work or are less effective with a dispersed staff, like manual processes that rely on in-person communication and collaboration. And we’re talking about technology that many businesses already have, like accounting software or complementary solutions that certainly don’t require an IT overhaul.ĬFOs and their teams should start by conducting a risk assessment, if they haven’t already. They should start simple and embrace technology as a powerful and necessary tool in this transition. “If you don’t review and adjust them periodically, you're bound to fall out of alignment and open yourself up to whatever the risk is that you're trying to control against.”Ī company’s top financial leader - whether a CFO, controller or other - should lead the development of this strategy. ![]() “Controls are in place to help manage risk,” Jeff Nourie, principal, strategy and business transformation at The Hackett Group(opens in a new tab), said. Rather, they need to figure out how to make established financial controls work with a dispersed workforce, especially as it becomes clear many employees will be working remotely well into 2021 - and maybe for good. They prevent fraud, unexpected large withdrawals from your bank account and other problems that can kill a business’s cash flow and harm its immediate and long-term financial health.įor the most part, businesses do not need to dream up new financial controls now that accountants and finance leaders are working from home. But businesses can’t afford (literally) to overlook them, because financial controls serve as a framework that facilitates financial responsibility and shapes how your money is allocated and spent. One mechanism that may have weakened during this sudden shift is financial controls. Most departments didn’t have a plan at the ready for working from home, so they figured it out as they went. The pandemic sent many employees home on short notice meaning there was little time for finance and accounting teams to map out how everything would work in this new operating environment.
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