Tools
The following tools were published on KnowledgeLeader this week:
Fraud Policy
Discover our Fraud Policy that promotes openness, probity and accountability and report and manage fraud and corruption with confidence. In these samples, the company is committed to the highest possible standards of openness, probity and accountability in all its affairs. In line with that commitment, the company’s anti-fraud policy outlines the principles it is committed to in preventing, reporting, and managing fraud and corruption.
Order Receipt and Fulfillment Policy
According to this policy, customer orders should be entered and fulfilled timely and accurately to ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction. To accomplish this, employees must be dedicated and proactive. The following sample outlines a set of policies and procedures for receiving and entering customer orders to ensure the timely and accurate fulfillment of those orders.
Payment Review Audit Work Program
Evaluate your organization's payment review audit process with this security audit checklist. Work steps include obtain all cash disbursement bank statements and review them to obtain a general understanding of the types of disbursements that occur from the accounts; discuss the different payment options with the controller or finance manager, including the reasonableness of the delegation of authority levels; determine if there are any compensation payments under the marketing arrangement agreement; etc.
Drug-Free Workplace and Workforce Audit Work Program
Audit steps include: obtain a copy of the written drug-free workplace policy; determine whether the policy lists the most common prescribed substances and indicates where a complete list of controlled substances is available; etc. The purpose of this work program is to provide the general steps used to perform a drug-free workplace and workforce audit.
Journal Entry Training Guide
This guide can be used to train auditors on the various aspects of an organization’s journal entry process. In addition, this tool includes management review considerations and common journal entry deficiencies. Auditors need to understand the segregation of duties regarding the authorizing, posting and reviewing of journal entries and the separation of reconciliation reviews.
Developing Budgets Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
This tool also suggests using balanced measures beyond financial metrics to evaluate proposals, including customer satisfaction and innovation potential, depending on what kind of value a company aims to provide its customers. Benchmarking company performance is also addressed by employing measures like EVA (economic value added), SVA (shareholder value added), MVA (market value added), and CFROI (cash flow return on investment).
IT Compliance Guide
Use the real-world techniques and receive usable templates in this guide to manage and execute your IT compliance initiative. Common IT deficiencies include formalized/documented policies and procedures are lacking, controls over changes to systems and data are lacking, the user access management/administration process is ineffective, programmer access to production is nonexistent, segregation of duties within the application is lacking, security/access to databases and subsystems is nonexistent, controls over spreadsheets are ineffective, and “evidentiary” failures occur.
Finance Function Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
This capability maturity model can be used to measure the maturity of an organization’s finance function and to assist its progress from the initial/ad-hoc state toward the optimized state. In this sample, an OPTIMIZED organization’s central guidance and local implementation are in place.
Publications
KnowledgeLeader has also published several publications this week.
PNC: Banking on a Future of Increased Relevance
In this profile, Juchno shares how her team has helped the business become more agile in how they respond to risk. Auditors at PNC Bank—who are trained to use advanced data analytics—vigilantly track and analyze any changes occurring inside or outside of the company that may impact its key risk indicators (KRIs) and require swift action.
IPO Trends Q1 2024
In this article, Audit Analytics takes a closer look at the IPO trends in the first quarter of 2024. In the first quarter of 2024, 46 new initial public offerings (IPOs) raised a combined total of $8.9 billion. The new year saw a slight increase in total IPOs from Q4 2023, and the proceeds raised more than doubled. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, the total number of IPOs decreased by only one, while IPO proceeds increased by 183%.
SIFMA’s Quantum Dawn VII After-Action Report
In this after-action report, we look at the lessons learned from the Quantum Dawn VII exercise. From November 14 to 16, 2023, more than 1,000 participants from both the public and private sectors, representing over 170 financial institutions across more than 20 countries, participated in the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)’s global Quantum Dawn VII exercise.
Recommended Resources
This list of recommended resources from the web may be of interest to you. Click each link to learn more.
- 53% of CFOs Have Adopted or Are Adopting ESG Principles: Report
- Regulations and Demand for Accountability Set the Tone for the Future of ESG Disclosures
- Root Cause Analysis: Auditor Tool Gaining Traction on Multiple Fronts