Process
documentation
Organizations must document their main financial
reporting processes. Given the potential
complexity of this process, this requirement
calls for the use of a powerful business
process modeling tool.
This tool must allow multiple users to design
and maintain the model, communicate the
model to interested parties inside and outside
the organization, and maintain this model
in a repository for future review.
Risk analysis and
documentation
Management implicitly makes various assertions
in representing that the financial statements
are fairly presented in conformity with
generally accepted accounting principles.
These assertions are for instance:
Existence or occurrence – assets and
liabilities exist at a given date and recorded
transactions occurred during a given period.
Completeness – all transactions and
events that should be included in the financial
statements are so included.
For each significant account assertion,
management must wonder for each process
what can go wrong
This tool must allow to define risk family
(a nomenclature of risks), characterize
risk (likelihood, impact)
Control documentation
We must then consider Controls over each
significant process that Address risks identified
for the each assertion. The tool must make
it possible to associate each risk with
the corresponding, preventive or curative
actions which could be automatic.
Most Business Processes are either partially
or wholly enabled by IT. So it is important
to document IT controls.
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