Examining the Essential Key Features of Internal Control Systems

This essay provides a detailed overview of the key features of internal control systems within organizations. It emphasizes the importance of employee quality, highlighting how adherence to rules and policies boosts efficiency. The essay also discusses the critical role of separation of duties in minimizing occupational fraud and ensuring ethical task completion. Furthermore, it covers the significance of bonded employees for security against theft, required absences for risk assessment, and procedure manuals for consistent operations. The importance of authority and responsibility in effective decision-making, pre-numbered documents for record-keeping, physical controls for asset security, and performance evaluation for enhancing employee productivity are also discussed. The essay concludes by reinforcing the necessity of these features in achieving organizational success and maintaining a robust internal control environment.

Internal control

Internal control
Table of Contents
Key features of internal control.......................................................................................................1
 Quality of the employees......................................................................................................1
 Separation of duties..............................................................................................................1
 Bonded employees................................................................................................................1
 Required absences................................................................................................................1
 Procedure manual.................................................................................................................2
 Authority and responsibility.................................................................................................2
 Pre numbered documents......................................................................................................2
 Physical control....................................................................................................................3
 Performance evaluation........................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5
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Internal control
Key features of internal control
There are various key features of internal control. In this paper the focus will be given on the
key features related to internal control.
 Quality of the employees
It has been observed that internal control creates an environment that helps the company to focus
on the mission and to achieve the strategic goals and objectives. The quality of the employees is
related with how well the employees consider the overall rules and policies in the workplace. It
is important to consider rules and regulations in the workplace so that it can be easy to manage
the overall operations. Efficiency and productivity of the employees can only be boosted if focus
is given on considering the overall rules and regulations implemented by the company (Goetsch
and Davis, 2014).
 Separation of duties
It can be stated that separation of duties is one of the essential factor in relation to internal
control. The main purpose of separation of duties is to minimize the occupational frauds in
relation to the asset misappropriation and intentional financial misstatement. This concept
emphasizes on having more than one individual to finish the task. In the workplace, the
separation of duties takes place so that the activities which are assigned to the individual can be
finished in an ethical manner. If there is proper separation of duties then it can be easy to achieve
the set targets in the workplace (Steingold, 2017).
 Bonded employees
This is the feature which should be there in relation to internal control. The bonded employee
here simply states that the companies bond the employees to enhance the security against the
employee theft and also with dishonesty. If bonding is there in the workplace, then it will offer
the company with the set compensation if any property loss takes place due to action of the
employee in the workplace. It is necessary to bond the employees, when they have access to
money or any valuable assets of the company as it will help in maintaining the safety to the
company in relation to the fraudulent activities (Mok and De Cremer, 2016).
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 Required absences
Internal control emphasizes on required absences in the workplace. It means that banking
companies, ensures that workers who are on the position should be absent from their duties for
only two minimum consecutive weeks. If this concept is considered then it can be easy to boost
the viability of a sound internal control environment. It is important for the companies to
emphasize on conducting the assessment related to risk areas. After this the people who are on
the position should not be given permission of doing any transact through electronic access. This
feature can help to boost the internal control in the workplace (Gajda, 2015).
 Procedure manual
It is related with the policies and procedures of the company which covers all the different
departments in the workplace. It can also be stated as the quality manual of the company. The
main motive of maintaining the procedure manual is to assist in maintaining the optimum
activities of the company and also it will emphasize on consistent delivery of the products and
services. The main purpose of this feature of internal control is to influence and consider all the
major decisions and actions. It has been analyzed that procedures are the particular methods that
are employed to focus on the policies in relation to the routine activities of the company (Funk et
al., 2016).
 Authority and responsibility
It is also one of the important features of internal control that should be there in the workplace so
that the activities can be finished with proper efficiency. It is observed that authority is related
with the power of giving orders and also to get it obeyed by the employees in the workplace.
With proper authority it can be easy for the people to take the decisions which will help in
managing the overall operations and in achieving the set targets. Responsibility emphasizes on
the concept of being accountable for any obligation, trust and debt. This means that obligation is
related with completing a particular job on a specified time period and also with efficiency. So, it
is important to have proper authority and responsibility in the workplace as it can help in
controlling the activities of the company (Morden, 2017).
 Pre numbered documents
These are also the documents which are related with internal control. It is important to consider
these documents as it can help in managing the internal activities of the company. The control in
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the workplace can be maintained if focus is given on proper record keeping and also it consist of
the invoices and other documents. It is important to use the pre-numbered and consecutive
documents so that it can be simple to focus on physical control over assets and records. It will
also help in securing the overall assets of the company in the workplace. If assets in the
workplace are not secured then it can be difficult to achieve profits. So, pre-numbered documents
are considered so that internal control in the workplace can be maintained. It can be examined
that if documents of the company are not maintained in a proper manner then it will be difficult
to maintain control over the overall activities. The pre-numbered documents are the key feature
of the internal control system as it maintained a control over the documents. With the help of this
it can be easy to trace and complete the overall activities in the workplace. It also focuses on the
checks and receipts which should be managed so that it can be easy for the management to find
out the actual position and also to manage the transactions of the company (Leijten et al., 2014).
 Physical control
Internal control is also related with the overall management of the assets in the workplace. The
physical control here simply states that there should be proper control on securing the assets of
the business. If assets of the company are secured then it can help in achieving the competitive
advantage and also the company can achieve profits. If mechanical and electronic control is there
in the workplace then it can help in boosting the accuracy and reliability of the overall
accounting records. It is important to focus on physical control as it has been seen that without
securing or safeguarding the assets of the company, it can be difficult for the company to achieve
success in the highly competitive business world (Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn, 2016). So, it
is necessary to emphasize on securing the asset of the company in the workplace.
 Performance evaluation
It is also one of the key aspects related to internal control. It is important for the top management
to focus on the overall performance of the employees. If performance of the employees is not
good in the workplace then it can be difficult for the company to achieve success in the business
world. Performance evaluation is defined as the formal and productive process that can help in
measuring the work of the employees and also it the outcome can be analyzed in a proper
manner.
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Internal control should be there in the workplace so that performance of the employees can be
enhanced and also it will help in assigning the job responsibilities to the employees. If
management does not focus on controlling the performance of the employees then it can lead to
low productivity and profits in the workplace (Chiang, Hsu and Hung, 2014). Therefore, it is
necessary for the management to emphasize on performance evaluation so that positive outcome
can be attained.
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References
Campbell, J.D., Jardine, A.K. and McGlynn, J. eds., 2016. Asset management excellence:
optimizing equipment life-cycle decisions. CRC Press.
Chiang, Y.H., Hsu, C.C. and Hung, K.P., 2014. Core self-evaluation and workplace
creativity. Journal of Business Research, 67(7), pp.1405-1413.
Funk, M., Heusler, J., Akcay, E., Weiland, K. and Schmidt, A., 2016, June. Haptic, Auditory, or
Visual?: Towards Optimal Error Feedback at Manual Assembly Workplaces. In Proceedings of
the 9th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive
Environments (p. 43). ACM.
Gajda, J., 2015. Employee Absence Management in Modern Organization. Journal of US-China
Public Administration, 12(7), pp.540-547.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Leijten, M., Van Waes, L., Schriver, K. and Hayes, J.R., 2014. Writing in the workplace:
Constructing documents using multiple digital sources. Journal of Writing Research, 5(3),
pp.285-337.
Mok, A. and De Cremer, D., 2016. The bonding effect of money in the workplace: Priming
money weakens the negative relationship between ostracism and prosocial behaviour. European
Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(2), pp.272-286.
Morden, T., 2017. Principles of management. Routledge.
Steingold, F.S., 2017. The employer's legal handbook: Manage your employees & workplace
effectively. Nolo.
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