Practical reviews of financial controls and business processes

Please note: This is a non-statutory internal controls service. It is not a statutory audit and does not provide an audit opinion or assurance on your financial statements. Its purpose is to review how your financial controls and processes operate and to offer practical recommendations.

Who this service is for

This service is aimed at directors, owners and finance managers of Birmingham and Midlands businesses who want reassurance that their financial controls are working, or a candid view of where they are not. It is particularly useful for companies that have grown quickly, taken on new finance staff, changed systems, or had a scare that exposed a weakness. It is not a compliance requirement; it is a voluntary health check on how your money and information are handled.

How we can help

We examine the way your finance function actually operates, not just how it is supposed to on paper, and identify where control weaknesses leave you exposed to error, loss or fraud. We then translate what we find into plain, prioritised recommendations that a business of your size can realistically put in place. The aim is a finance function you can trust, with sensible checks and balances that fit the way you work rather than smothering it in bureaucracy.

What’s included

• Review of transaction-authorisation controls: who can approve what, and up to what limit
• Assessment of segregation of duties across key financial tasks
• Review of bank and cash controls
• Review of payroll controls
• Review of purchasing and payment processes
• Review of sales and credit control
• Consideration of fraud-risk indicators
• Review of data-quality controls
• Review of policy compliance in day-to-day practice
• Process documentation capturing how key controls currently operate
• A written report of findings and prioritised recommendations
• Follow-up reviews to check that agreed changes have been implemented

How it works

1. We agree the scope, focusing on the areas of greatest concern or risk to you.
2. We meet the people involved and walk through how each process operates in practice.
3. We examine samples of transactions and records to see how the controls hold up.
4. We identify gaps, weaknesses and fraud-risk indicators.
5. We produce a report of findings with practical, prioritised recommendations.
6. Where agreed, we return later for a follow-up review to confirm improvements have taken hold.

What we’ll need from you

• Time with the people who run your key financial processes
• Access to relevant records, such as bank, payroll, purchasing and sales documentation
• Any existing policies, procedures or process notes you already hold
• An openness to discussing how things really work, not just how they are meant to
• A point of contact to help arrange access and answer follow-up questions

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming that trusted, long-serving staff remove the need for any controls
• Concentrating too many duties in one person, so no independent check exists
• Leaving informal processes undocumented, so knowledge walks out of the door with people
• Treating a control weakness as fixed once it is identified, without confirming the change was actually made
• Mistaking this review for an audit: it is a non-statutory look at your controls, not an opinion on your financial statements

Serving Birmingham and the Midlands

We carry out controls reviews for businesses throughout Birmingham and the Midlands, combining cloud access to your systems and records with conversations held by video or in person, arranged around your team. Because much of a process only makes sense when you see it in action, we agree in advance how best to observe the areas under review, wherever your operations are based.