Internal Controls

Internal controls are the policies, procedures, and organizational structures designed to safeguard assets, ensure financial reporting accuracy, promote operational efficiency, and encourage compliance with laws and regulations. They are your first line of defense against fraud.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners reports that organizations lose an estimated 5% of revenue to fraud each year. Strong internal controls can dramatically reduce this exposure by creating systems of checks and balances that make fraud more difficult to commit and easier to detect.

Effective controls go beyond written policies — they require a culture of accountability, proper segregation of duties, regular monitoring, and the willingness to investigate anomalies promptly.

Weak internal controls often reveal themselves through specific organizational patterns: a single employee controlling an entire financial process from start to finish, lack of regular reconciliation between records and physical assets, overridden approval processes, and missing or poorly maintained documentation.

Other indicators include resistance to implementing standard controls, high turnover in financial positions, lack of mandatory vacations for employees handling funds, and an organizational culture that discourages reporting concerns. These gaps create the opportunity for fraud to take root and grow undetected.

MPM Consulting evaluates your organization's existing control environment through the lens of decades of fraud investigation experience. We've seen how fraud exploits control weaknesses, and we use that knowledge to design practical, effective safeguards.

Our assessment covers segregation of duties, authorization procedures, physical and digital asset controls, reconciliation processes, and monitoring systems. We identify vulnerabilities, prioritize remediation by risk level, and provide implementation guidance tailored to your organization's size and complexity.

We don't just hand you a report — we work with your team to implement controls that are practical, sustainable, and proportionate to your risk profile, ensuring your organization is protected without being burdened by unnecessary bureaucracy.