A picture is worth a thousand words. And that principle can prove very useful in the endless drive for more efficient auditing of internal controls.
Flowcharts—those simple diagrams created to depict how a transaction unfolds—have seen a surge in popularity in the last three years, as internal auditors struggle to find ways to document internal controls over financial reporting. Although born in the era before computers managed financial systems, Sarbanes-Oxley has led to a revival in flowcharts and put them alongside spreadsheets and written narratives as vital tools for SOX compliance.
