Process and controls design
For companies that have outgrown the founder's memory. We map how money, stock and data move through the business, agree where the checks belong, and leave you with documents your team can run.
You may need this when…
- 01Approvals happen by habit, not by a written delegation of authority
- 02The same task is done three ways in three offices
- 03A new finance head, investor or lender asks how controls work and nobody can show it
- 04An ERP or payroll system is being changed and the process has to be written first
Four things, in writing.
Each deliverable is yours: built in your tools, owned by a named person in your team.
Process maps
Purchase to payment, order to cash, payroll inputs, record to report: drawn step by step with the people and systems involved.
Delegation of authority
Who may approve which spend, contract or hire, up to which limit. One matrix, signed off by the board.
Risk and control matrix
What could go wrong at each step, the check that stops it, who performs it and what evidence it leaves.
Standard operating procedures
Short, numbered instructions for each task, written for the person doing it.
Four stages.
Dates for each stage are fixed in the written scope before work starts. The full method
Walk-through
We follow real transactions from start to finish with the people who do the work.
Gaps
Where a check is missing, duplicated or depends on one person.
Design
Controls sized to the company: enough to be safe, few enough to be followed.
Roll-out
Training, a first month of support, and a simple self-check your team repeats each quarter.
What this is not.
- An audit or a review that ends in an opinion. We design and document; testing and opinions sit with the company's own reviewers and its auditors.
How long does a first process map take?
It depends on the number of processes, locations and systems. The written scope sets the list and the dates before work starts.
Will you work in our ERP?
Yes. Controls should live where the work happens, so the design follows your systems, not ours.
Talk to us about process and controls design.
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