Companies are preparing for the year-end audit and are still putting the finishing touches on their adoption of a new framework for internal controls over financial reporting. That work could have benefits elsewhere, say audit experts who are already advising companies on other uses of the framework beyond external financial reporting.
The Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations in 2013 is about to replace COSO’s 1992 edition when the old one, officially at least, ceases to exist at the end of 2014. COSO updated the 1992 framework to bring it in line with current business practices, especially to reflect the modern uses of technology in business. COSO also wanted to state more explicitly that all 17 principles of control described in the framework must be present and functioning for an entity to assert its controls are operating effectively.
