Internal Control - Integrated Framework

This landmark report was commissioned by the Committee on Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). It establishes a common definition of internal control that services the needs of different parties for assessing and improving their control systems.

Produced after the release of the Treadway Commission's recommendations, this COSO document provides principles-based guidance for designing and implementing effective internal controls. COSO developed the framework in response to senior executives' need for effective ways to better control their enterprises and to help ensure that organizational objectives related to operations, reporting, and compliance are achieved. This framework has become the most widely used internal control framework in the U.S. and has been adapted or adopted by numerous countries and businesses around the world.

COSO's groundbreaking report includes:

Executive Summary
Framework
Reporting to External Parties
Evaluation Tools
The Addendum to Reporting to External Parties is also included.

It encourages management that reports to external parties on controls over financial reporting to also cover controls over safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition.

It defines such controls and provides a suggested form of report.

Five Evaluation Tools are now available on disk, one for each of the internal control components identified in Integrated Framework for Internal Control.

Everyone in your firm or company who works with internal controls should have his or her own copy.