Internal Control System - COSO's Framework (PowerPoint PPTX)

What is Internal Control?
Similar to the term "corporate governance," there are many varying definitions of internal control. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) defines internal control as:
Internal control is a process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management, and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives relating to operations, reporting, and compliance.
The COSO model is a holistic framework, that is generally accepted and used globally. It serves as an underlying basis for other internal control models, including those developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel's Framework). Sponsored by five nonprofit organizations, COSO aims at providing thought leadership on internal control and enterprise risk management. It achieves its mission through publishing guidance and framework that companies and organizations around the globe can apply in their practices. COSO published its first guidance, Internal Control – Integrated Framework, in 1992. The initial framework was subsequently complemented by derivative frameworks on various internal control aspects. In May 2013, COSO issued an updated version of the initial framework.
Organizations should design their internal control system according to existing best practice standards. The COSO Framework focuses on the following five integrated components:
A- Control Environment is the set of standards, processes, and structures that provide the basis for carrying out internal control across the organization.
B- Risk Assessment involves a formal process for identifying and assessing risks affecting the achievement of objectives.
C- Control Activities are the actions established through policies and procedures that help ensure management's directives to mitigate risks affecting the achievement of objectives are carried out, performed at all levels of the entity, at various stages within business processes, and over the technology environment.
D- Information and Communication refer to the continual, iterative process of providing, sharing, and obtaining necessary information. Management obtains, generates, and uses relevant and quality information from both internal and external sources to support the functioning of other components of internal control.
E- Monitoring Activities are ongoing or separate evaluations to ascertain whether each of the five components of internal control are adequate and functioning.
This 72-slides document is easily customizable and contains many powerful diagrams, ice-breakers, pictures, ... to get the holistic view of Internal Control System (COSO's Internal Control Framework).