Analysis and optimisation of internal control systems

PwC’s experts support businesses in setting up, assessing and operating their internal control systems (ICS) using proven tools and individual advice, making the ICS an effect tool for minimising risks.

Major financial scandals in the EU and the USA have shown just how important a functioning internal control system (ICS) can be. In the wake of such scandals, wide-ranging regulations on internal controls have been established in law or are on the horizon with the aim of ensuring the reliability and transparency of financial reporting. However, businesses often find it a challenge to comply with the regulations.

PwC's internal controls experts assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of company-level controls, business process controls and internal management and monitoring systems. PwC advises businesses on professional internal controls management. This advice also covers meeting the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well as EU and national directives or other compliance-related requirements.

Internal control systems require permanent optimisation

Internal control systems need to be permanently optimised to ensure that the requirements of all stakeholders (legislative authorities, shareholders, employees and others) are met in a consistent and efficient manner. The focus here is on increasing the effectiveness of the controls and reducing costs of setting up, demonstrating or operating the ICS. PwC's internal controls experts use some of the solutions below to identify potential improvements and optimise internal control systems.

A summary of PwC's services:

• Analysis of existing ICS structures within operational processes and IT using a range of assessment methodologies and factoring in frameworks such as Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). During the analysis, PwC provides support to ensure that all compliance requirements are reflected in the ICS.
• Identification of potential improvements through analysis of existing processes.
• Optimisation of the internal control system to create a system providing the best possible benefits and defined quality at the lowest cost and meeting all compliance requirements.
• Permanent improvement in internal controls, i.e. manual controls are automated and detective controls are replaced by preventive controls; automatic testing can significantly reduce the costs of maintaining the ICS.
• Increased standardisation of controls.
• Benefiting from synergies through ICS optimisation.
• Implementation and optimisation of KPI dashboard reporting to support the management and monitoring processes and assess the effectiveness of the ICS.

Benefits for businesses: more reliability, fewer risks

Businesses will see direct benefits as a result of implementing these solutions, for example increased reliability of the ICS, a reduction in risks associated with compliance and an improvement in the cost-benefit ratio. The cost of maintaining the ICS can also be reduced over the long term, for example through automatic testing.

An effective ICS is a solid basis on which to build a risk management system: total compliance costs are reduced and a good basis for effective risk management is provided. By working together with PwC to implement the solutions, you can draw on wide-ranging expertise and best practices in your sector including proven implementation methodologies.