The finance team is two people. The control framework assumes five.

Segregation of duties was designed for organisations big enough to segregate. What actually protects a business where one person raises, pays and reconciles?

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The finance team is two people. The control framework assumes five.

Every internal control textbook rests on the same premise: the person who approves a payment should not be the person who makes it, and neither should be the person who reconciles the account afterwards. Three jobs, three pairs of hands. It is sound design. It is also, in a business with two people in finance and an owner who signs things between meetings, arithmetically impossible. The usual response is to conclude that controls are for larger organisations and move on. That reasoning is understandable and expensive. The point of segregation…

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