Internal control, internal control culture, internal audit
First, the objectives and importance of enterprise internal control
(A) enterprise internal control objectives
Enterprise internal control is a process that the board of directors, the board of supervisors, the managers and all employees jointly implement to achieve control objectives. Internal control includes five objectives: First, reasonably ensure the legal compliance of enterprise management. The second is to maintain asset security. The third is to promote the authenticity and integrity of financial reports and related information. The fourth is to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. The fifth is to promote enterprises to realize their development strategies. The unification of the establishment and implementation of internal control is not only conducive to improving the management level and risk prevention ability of enterprises, but also conducive to promoting enterprises to enter the international market and participate in international competition.
(B) the importance of enterprise internal control
(1) Implement national guidelines, policies and regulations. The legal and compliant production and operation of enterprises must be based on the premise of complying with national policies and regulations. Enterprises should first establish a set of internal control system that is in line with their own, and constantly improve and perfect it. In this way, they can effectively supervise and control the work contents, processes and projects of various departments within the enterprise, timely reflect the problems occurring within the enterprise and make targeted corrections, so as to implement the national guidelines, policies and regulations.
(2) prevent business risks and realize the sustainable development of enterprises. In the fierce competition environment, enterprises should constantly improve and perfect the internal control system to ensure that their production and business activities are carried out legally, legally, scientifically and reasonably, so as to effectively avoid and reduce various risks faced by enterprises, ensure the benign operation of enterprise business activities and realize the sustainable development of enterprises.
(3) Promote the truthfulness and completeness of financial information and provide correct decision-making basis. Enterprise internal control is closely related to financial accounting. A sound internal control system can prevent the original vouchers from being intentionally or forcibly forged or tampered with by financial personnel, prepare false financial statements, and ensure that financial personnel correctly record the economic business of enterprises. Only in this way can we ensure the authenticity and integrity of financial information, provide a basis for enterprise management to make correct decisions, improve the transparency of enterprises, increase investors' trust in enterprises, and attract investment.
(4) Improve the internal supervision and restraint mechanism to maintain asset safety. A perfect internal control system can help enterprises to set up various positions reasonably, reasonably divide everyone's responsibilities and authority, and truly achieve separation of control, authorization approval control and mutual restriction of incompatible positions. Scientific and effective supervision of assets from all aspects of procurement, warehousing, sales and warehousing, to prevent fraud and safeguard the safety and integrity of enterprise assets.
Second, the problems of internal control of enterprises
(A) lack of corporate internal control culture
Enterprise management lacks sufficient internal control consciousness and scientific internal control concept. They often think that it is unnecessary to spend more manpower and financial resources on the establishment and implementation of the internal control system. In order to save the cost of enterprises, the daily business activities of enterprises only need the "pen" of the general manager, but the internal control system limits their rights and freedoms. Even if an enterprise establishes an internal control system, it often stays in the form. They will hang it on the wall and put it in the filing cabinet just to cope with the inspection by the regulatory authorities. They think that the internal control system is just a series of contents listed in words, and they avoid it on the grounds of flexible handling when they encounter problems in their work. They also believe that the internal control of enterprises is only the work of financial departments, and there is a lack of coordination and communication between departments, which leads to the confusion of enterprise management, property losses and other follow-up problems. They don't realize that the internal control of an enterprise should be controlled by all employees, from top to bottom, from inside to outside, lacking the awareness of risk control, internal report control and budget control.
(B) Enterprise internal control system is not perfect
Many enterprises have established internal control systems, but there are various problems such as imperfect content and unscientific design. Some enterprises only have a basic internal control framework, but they have not formed a complete system. Some enterprises even completely copy the internal control system of other enterprises, regardless of whether it is suitable for their own business activities. For example, the purchase acceptance system in the purchase business control has not been established, and the sales contract management system in the sales business control is not perfect. Imperfect internal control system leads to unclear responsibilities, unclear powers and responsibilities, and incompatible posts, which leads to mutual wrangling and shirking responsibilities among departments and personnel, which leads to the failure to implement the internal control system of enterprises and the ineffectiveness of auditing and supervision of internal control. Some important work links have not been independently audited, which can not guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy and integrity of the enterprise's economic business, and even lead to the occurrence of fraud such as abuse of power and intentional corruption by internal managers of the enterprise. 1 2