1. According to an essay published on the Australian Education Research Pty Ltd website online, internal control procedures and internal accounting controls comprise the procedures that management has adopted or developed to provide management with a level of assurance that the objectives of the accounting information system will be achieved. Auditors are concerned with the effectiveness of internal controls for two reasons. First, weaknesses in internal control procedures can lead to material misstatements in the financial information which may not be detected by the auditor. Secondly, effective internal control procedures provide assurance that misstatements will be detected first by the company being audited and that these internal controls can be relied on by the auditors to detect accounting errors and accounting fraud (Internal Control Procedures).
2. According to an essay published on the Kansas State University website online, internal controls are an integral part of any organization's financial and business policies and procedures. The key to effective internal control techniques is finding ways to prevent problems rather than ways to identify them after the fact. Internal controls consists of all the measures taken by the organization to protecting its resources against waste, fraud, and inefficiency; ensure accuracy and reliability in accounting and operating data; evaluate the performance of the organization and its operating units.
Organizations must be proactive in reducing fraud opportunities by first identifying fraud risks, and then taking the necessary steps to mitigate the risks identified. Businesses and other organizations should implement appropriate preventive measures to deter theft, fraud and misappropriation. These internal controls should be re-evaluated regularly to determine their effectiveness.
The following elements have proven effective as internal control techniques:
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