The Washington CPA 2020 Fall

INTERNAL CONTROLS

Internal Controls in a Remote World Natalie Rooney As remote work takes hold at CPA firms and organizations, getting a grip on internal controls is essential for overcoming the security risks of an at-home workforce. Before COVID-19, working from home full time was the exception rather than the rule. According to a June 2020 survey by IBM Security and Morning Consult, 83 percent of respondents said that prior to the pandemic they worked from home either rarely or not at all. In face-to-face, pre-pandemic office settings, employers and IT teams managed, implemented, and monitored security measures and protocols from a central location. Now those systems are upended. “Managing internal controls in an office setting is one thing. Managing internal controls when everyone is working from their kitchen tables is another thing altogether,” says Bob Dohrer, CPA, CGMA, chief auditor for the AICPA. As pandemic concerns remain high, many workplaces plan to continue remote work into 2021 and beyond, and organizations may find themselves playing catch-up as they try to manage potential security risks in a world where in-person oversight is impossible and traditional controls are ineffective. The pandemic has exacerbated the usual risks, with remote work, furloughs, and layoffs all creating new weaknesses. “Suddenly there may be fewer people available to process financial transactions, and that creates pressure,” Dohrer says. “Combine all of this with issues surrounding the segregation of duties, and teams that aren’t interacting in a live setting, and problems can develop quickly. Controls designed for the office just don’t work as well in a virtual environment. We have a new level of consideration that has to take place.”

If you haven’t revisited your internal controls lately, now is the time, says Jenny Deloy, CPA, MBA, Marcum LLP’s Chicago office managing partner and Illinois region partner in charge of assurance services. “Change, anxiety, and uncertainty are creating an environment where fraud proliferates, and fraudsters are out there with new scams to convince people to do things they wouldn’t normally do,” she explains. As a result, companies need to be very aware of the steps they can take to avoid the opportunity for fraud, advises Elizabeth Sloan, CPA, managing director in Grant Thornton’s Chicago audit methodology and standards group: “Since we’re not all physically together, we need to think about the basics. What changes have occurred to the control environment because of remote work? We need to be sure we’re thinking about the right things and not becoming complacent.” Here’s how to ensure your internal controls remain relevant in a remote environment.

"If you haven’t revisited your internal controls lately, now is the time." Graphics: © iStock/akindo

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The Washington CPA Fall 2020

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