Assessing internal controls amid the new COVID-19 working environment

Are your controls still effective in the new COVID-19 environment?

Audit committees, internal audit executives and other bodies charged with corporate governance need to understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on internal controls. The pandemic has caused many to transition to a work-from-home framework, but your most important internal controls may not have kept pace with these rapid process changes. Now is the time to ensure that you have no issues with underlying transactions and data.

Efficient insights into your internal controls

RSM has developed a comprehensive COVID-19 rapid controls triage scan to assess and quickly evaluate your pandemic-related internal control risks. The process begins with a collaborative, technology-enabled virtual workshop where RSM advisors share insights gained through addressing COVID-19 workforce risks in your industry and determine how the pandemic has affected your organization. Our process removes the manual tasks of wading through risk and controls matrices to collect key data including:

• Where processes have changed
• How your workforce has changed
• Where new risk exposures may have emerged

A decisive course of action

Through data analysis of information captured from the workshop, RSM creates a visual, consensus-building dashboard that details your risks, likelihood of control failures and effort necessary to perform identified at-risk controls. The dashboard provides a clear perspective on your internal control risk, allowing your organization to create an appropriate and actionable road map of strategies including:

• Using data analysis to identify, errors, potential fraud and other irregularities
• Pointing out the potential need for reliance on alternative controls
• Prioritizing resources to perform missed controls or do deeper testing of controls as necessary

The COVID-19 rapid controls scan is built on RSM’s extensive technical, industry, business and internal controls experience. It is a time-saving, collaborative process, generating quick consensus on priorities and strategies, without the need to manually sort through risk and control matrices. In addition, the flexible scan can be deployed remotely or on-site, depending on your specific needs.