Compliance, risk and internal controls management

Make key processes and accounting activities more visible, repeatable, controlled and auditable with CODA’s new suite of software solutions to:

• deliver simpler, more efficient and consistent finance processes
• support an embedded-best-practice approach to risk management
• enable more effective and co-ordinated internal controls programmes
• achieve simple, controlled compliance with demanding new regulatory regimes.

CODA has applied expertise from audit specialists Control Solutions International, delivering the software to help commercial or public sector organizations to:

• Design & Document
• Automate & Standardize
• Test & Monitor

their processes and controls – either in response to specific legislation or just for better internal management and co-ordination.

Whether your requirements involve one or more of these key activities, CODA’s proven software solutions will help with: completing key business activities more simply, efficiently and consistently; embedding best practice into day-to-day operations to support preventative risk management; improving the effectiveness and delivery of internal controls programmes; and achieving the level of simple, controlled compliance that you need.

Time to Take Control!

Automating processes, managing risk, co-ordinating internal controls and supporting compliance.

The three applications in the CODA-Control suite (Architect, Manager and Assessor) can be used either individually or in various combinations with each other to address key elements of corporate governance – whether your requirements involve one or more of:

• Designing & Documenting
• Automating & Standardizing
• Testing & Monitoring

your processes and controls.

Do you need a fast track to pursuing best practice?

Design & Document your internal processes and controls, with CODA-Control Architect, to identify and address risk factors.

CODA-Control Architect enables you to lay the foundations for incorporating proven best practices into your operations (including the widely adopted COSO risk management framework) and build a coherent, comprehensive, documented set of processes and controls across your organization.

It capitalizes on the experience and methodology developed by CODA and its partners. The first methodology supported is SOXlite™, developed by internal audit specialist Control Solutions International. It has created a straightforward “top-down” compliance methodology based on industry best practices and its years of helping clients implement effective, practical control systems. In partnership, CODA has applied the CODA-Control Architect software to deliver this methodology for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance in the US – as well as similar support, in the near future, for other regulatory compliance requirements around the world, such as Basel II, the Code Tabaksblat (in the Netherlands) and the LSF (in France).

With CODA-Control Architect, organizations can fast track the stages of scoping and defining their enterprise risk management programme by selecting from an “off-the-shelf” list of key processes (along with associated procedures and controls to mitigate likely risks). Rather than building a framework from the ground up, they simply choose the most relevant best practices for their industry, needs and structure and can then amend them, if necessary, for their own specific situation.

Designing effective control across the business

Do you need a better way to manage processes?

Automate & Standardize key business processes, with CODA-Control Manager, to ensure the consistent, repeatable, auditable execution of your procedures.

CODA-Control Manager is a fast, cost-effective means of making documented processes more visible, repeatable, controlled and auditable – using simple, Microsoft-based technology to automate and embed best practice processes and controls throughout finance and beyond!

This streamlines the implementation, co-ordination and completion of a huge range of financial and business processes. It also pushes continuous, ongoing risk management and compliance support out across the business with better ways of working that are more easily documented, co-ordinated and monitored – as they happen:

• automating task assignment and management
• keeping all participants informed and aware of the input needed and when it is required – via a shared web portal
• creating audit trails and a document history to support compliance reporting and internal controls programmes.

This allows users to model, manage and automate key processes, allocating responsibilities, timescales and dependencies to each task. As a result, all the stakeholders and participants in these processes can collaborate with each other far more easily and efficiently and complete essential business activities more effectively and consistently. And each change is automatically marked with a tamper-proof stamp that records exactly what was done, when – and by whom!

The solution integrates seamlessly with CODA-Financials or other leading finance applications, such as SAP, Oracle or Microsoft and combines CODA’s advanced task modelling engine with widely used Microsoft® Office productivity technologies, such as: SharePoint® (standard portal); Outlook (email); and InfoPath® (forms).

Do you need a single internal audit “control centre” for documentation evaluation & testing?

Test & Monitor your internal controls programme more effectively, with CODA-Control Assessor, to provide a flexible, scaleable and fully customizable control centre.

CODA-Control Assessor is based on an original, innovative tool designed and road-tested by audit specialists Control Solutions International; CODA is now taking the application forward, with ongoing development and support.

The software is a complete web-based solution that enables you to:

• address the area of ongoing testing to maintain control effectiveness
• ensure an appropriate level of risk management
• keep track of work to achieve this.

It simplifies and automates assessment work: providing a central resource for handling, tracking and storing process control documentation; and making sense of your results through intuitive management dashboards. Crucially, it identifies areas of risk that are not being addressed effectively – not only where the controls are insufficient but also where excessive control activity is in place.

CODA-Control Assessor is ideal for evaluating, monitoring and project-managing a wide range of internal control activities and programmes. This includes its original purpose as a dedicated controls evaluation tool (incorporating the widely adopted COSO risk management methodology) for SOX or Code Tabaksblat compliance and SAS 70 accreditation support but it is equally useful for maintaining visibility over other forms of internal control programmes too.