Control Fundamentals: Segregation of Duties

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. While this philosophy may be empowering when it comes to auto repair or cooking, applying it to accounts payable is a one-way ticket to internal fraud. When one person handles conflicting elements of a financial process, he or she can do considerable financial damage. For example, if a person who sets up vendors in the master file also approves disbursements, what is to stop him from approving payments to fictitious vendors? Or, if…