Accounting

4 Tips to Alleviate Accounting Compliance Threats With Internal Controls

Mar 30, 2015

With the rigors of Sarbanes-Oxley law, especially with the contentious Section 404, compliance with the various laws, rules, policies, and procedures, whether internal or federally enacted are important in the day to day operation of a business. The law requires the management and auditors to report on the adequacy of the company’s internal control on financial reporting (ICFR) and is the most costly aspect of the legislation. Costs, as we all know, are a very important aspect considered by small- and medium-based businesses. However, despite the cost it entails, internal controls are important in a business as it ensures efficiency and compliance and reduces the perceived threats on a business.

Internal control is everyone’s responsibility, with the manager having most of the responsibility. Internal controls not only rest with the managers, but also the rest of the team, as they need to provide the information and data needed for each report. Auditors are kept in the loop to gain insight into the departmental policies and procedures. People managing internal controls know the value the internal controls brings to the business like the following:

  1. Promote an orderly, effective and cost-efficient operations
  2. Safeguard resources against any waste, mismanagement, abuse, losses, errors, and fraud
  3. Promote timely adherence to regulations, procedures, and policies
  4. Develop, report, and maintain reliable financial and management data in a timely manner

FloQast helps bridge the gap with compliance to internal controls, be it a monthly or year-end close. Our close management software helps mitigate the threats on your business to ensure that your business is sound and compliant. In general, accounting solutions help alleviate:

Unintentional Errors of Data Recording or Processing of Data

Data encoding entails different formats among different applications, leading to errors. Formatting account reconciliations not only causes errors but it’s extremely time-consuming. Creators of FloQast, being at the forefront themselves, built our close management platform to automatically convert files, delivering error-free results consistently.

Accidental Loss or Destruction of Records

Being a cloud-based application, FloQast records and uploads data securely in the cloud. Redundancy measures and automatic back-ups ensure that you can retrieve files that are accidentally deleted. It’s not only you can save time, but you can save the needed office space as well. Restoring older versions of a file can be a breeze with multiple copies being made at the back-end, providing you a worry-free transaction, consistently.

Lack of Compliance by Employees with Management Policies

FloQast’s dashboard affords managers the ability to track everyone’s progress from one, centralized location. With the dashboard feature, controllers can have a glimpse of the transactions made by each employee. Easily collect and correct supporting documents needed with just a touch of a button and reminders can automatically be set and sent to each.

Communication has never been easy like this, giving your team and department more transactions to close in lesser time!

Wasteful and Inefficient Use of Resources

Time is the most precious of all resources. With the dashboard feature mentioned above, no need to set weekly meetings for updates. With just a simple scheduler and task reminder, you can get the results without being physically there.

Not only does close management software save time, but also resources in the form of application purchases. FloQast integrates with existing General Ledger or Microsoft Excel seamlessly. Since FloQast is in the cloud, collaboration is ensured with less supervision and physical status update meetings. With authorization through a click of a button, everyone can contribute to getting things done more efficiently.

FloQast’s close management software can help your company document processes, internal controls, and improve audit documentation, helping you collaborate with auditors in a breeze and help your company comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley audits in a short amount of time. Happy Closing!