Strong internal controls are one of the most effective tools a business has to protect its assets and maintain the integrity of its financial data. At their core, internal controls are the policies, procedures, and safeguards an organization puts in place to deter errors, reduce fraud risk, and promote accountability across financial operations.
Many businesses assume their existing controls are sufficient. But controls that were designed for your company two or five years ago may no longer reflect how your business actually operates today. As your workforce grows, roles shift, and processes evolve, gaps can emerge—sometimes without anyone noticing.
KatzAbosch’s internal control study services help organizations identify those gaps and address them before they become costly problems. Our team evaluates your existing procedures across accounts payable (AP), cash management, and fraud prevention to help you understand where your risk exposure lies and what you can do about it.
AP is one of the highest-risk areas for fraud and error in any organization. Without proper controls, businesses are vulnerable to duplicate payments, unauthorized vendor activity, and fictitious invoices. Our team reviews your AP processes to assess whether appropriate segregation of duties is in place, whether expense approval workflows are functioning as intended, and whether your current procedures adequately verify that payments are legitimate before they go out the door.
Cash is the most liquid—and most vulnerable—asset a business holds. Effective cash controls include protecting bank statements from unauthorized access, establishing clear procedures for who handles and records cash receipts, and separating the functions of cash handling and recordkeeping. We work with you to evaluate your current cash management environment and identify opportunities to reduce the likelihood of misappropriation.
This includes reviewing accounts receivable controls, which are directly tied to cash risk. Weak AR procedures—such as inadequate segregation between billing, collections, and cash application—can create opportunities for employees to intercept payments or conceal shortfalls. Addressing these vulnerabilities is a core component of a sound cash control environment.
Fraud rarely happens all at once. It typically develops over time, enabled by opportunity—often in the form of missing or outdated controls. An employee who handles both recordkeeping and cash, or who approves and processes their own expenses, may not set out to commit fraud, but the lack of oversight creates conditions where it can happen.
Our fraud prevention work focuses on reducing those opportunities through meaningful segregation of duties, structured approval workflows, and regular review processes. We also work with you to identify environmental or organizational pressures that may be creating risk—and to put practical mitigations in place.
Internal control reviews often surface inefficiencies alongside risks. We take a holistic approach to this work, incorporating Lean Six Sigma principles to help you eliminate waste and improve process flow—not just plug holes. This work is led by Claudia R. Wolter, CPA, CCIFP, CCA, a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified through Ohio State University ATI and Boomer Consulting, Inc.
Lean Six Sigma principles we apply include:
To learn more about how our process improvement services can support your internal controls, visit our Business Process Improvement page.
