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John Spacey, April 13, 2017 updated on December 10, 2018
Segregation of duties is the principle that no single individual is given authority to execute two conflicting duties. This is a basic type of internal control that is used to manage risk. In many cases, segregation of duties is required by law or standards in areas such as accounting, corporate governance and information security. The following are illustrative examples of segregation of duties.
Vendor Maintenance & Posting InvoicesSeparation of creating vendors in a system from posting and paying invoices. Helps to prevent fictitious customers with fictitious invoices.Purchase Orders & ApprovalsPurchase orders typically require multiple approvals.Payments & Bank ReconciliationMaking payments to vendors and reconciliation of bank statements.Paychecks & Bank ReconciliationPaying employees and bank reconciliation.
Journal Entry & ApprovalsSeparation of entering a journal entry and approval of journal entries.Custody of Cash & Account Receivable ReconciliationSeparating roles that manage cash deposits from customers and reconciliation of those deposits with sales records.Hire & Set CompensationHiring an employee and setting their compensation. Helps to prevent people from hiring friends at an inappropriate salary.
Hire & Approve HireHiring an employee often has to be approved by multiple departments.Expenses & Expense ApprovalsSeparation of claiming and approving expenses. Asset Custody & Asset InventorySeparation of custody of assets and record keeping related to those assets. Sales & ApprovalsSeparation of selling and approval of sales deals such as approval of margins and customer credit.Customer Maintenance & Credit NotesAdding customers in a system and posting credit notes.
Shipping & Customer AccountsShipping and receiving is separated from posting transactions such as credit notes to a customer's account.Risk Management & TradingSeparating risk taking activities such as financial trading from risk management activities.Advising Clients & TradingSeparation of advising banking clients on things such as mergers & acquisition from trading that firm's stock.
Development & AdministrationSeparating development of software and administration of systems, particularly production systems. Allows process to be followed in updating code that is tested and reviewed.Development & OperationsSeparation of software development and the operation of related systems and services. Allows problems with software to be reported accurately and managed within process.System Access PermissionsAdding and editing system access permissions is viewed as a root authority that is separated from all financial management activities.
System Configuration & ApprovalsChanging systems and software typically requires a number of approvals. For example, implementing changes to firewall rules is separated from approving those changes as a basic security control.
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