Chart of accounts and GL master data
Risk: New accounts, cost centres, profit centres or reporting mappings are created without approval, causing miscoding or incorrect financial-statement grouping.
Controls
- GL master change approval
- Chart-of-accounts ownership
- Mapping review
- Dormant account review
Tests
- Review GL master additions and changes
- Trace new accounts to approval and purpose
- Check financial-statement mapping
- Review dormant and manual-use accounts
Evidence
Chart of accounts, GL change log, mapping file, approval workflow, owner list and dormant account report.
Close calendar and account ownership
Risk: Month-end close is delayed, unsupported or dependent on informal follow-ups rather than assigned owners and review deadlines.
Controls
- Approved close calendar
- Account-owner matrix
- Close task tracker
- Reviewer sign-off
Tests
- Compare actual close dates to calendar
- Inspect owner/reviewer evidence
- Review delayed tasks and escalations
- Check open items carried forward
Evidence
Close calendar, task tracker, account-owner matrix, sign-off log, escalation emails and close dashboard.
Manual journals and post-close entries
Risk: Unsupported, late, round-sum, backdated or management-override journals are posted without independent review.
Controls
- Journal approval workflow
- Supporting-document checklist
- Post-close entry review
- Risk-based journal exception scan
Tests
- Filter journals by user, timing, round values and keywords
- Trace selected entries to support
- Review post-close and backdated entries
- Check preparer-reviewer segregation
Evidence
Journal register, vouchers, support files, approval trail, user list, posting timestamp and exception report.
Accruals, provisions and estimates
Risk: Expenses, provisions, bonuses, claims, warranties or other estimates are omitted, reversed incorrectly or unsupported by current evidence.
Controls
- Accrual checklist
- Provision computation review
- Estimate owner sign-off
- Subsequent-payment review
Tests
- Recompute key provisions
- Trace accruals to contracts and invoices
- Review reversals and true-ups
- Scan subsequent payments for missed accruals
Evidence
Accrual schedule, provision working, contracts, invoices, subsequent-payment report, management estimate note and reviewer sign-off.
Balance-sheet reconciliations
Risk: Bank, vendor, customer, tax, suspense, clearing or control accounts contain stale, unreconciled or unsupported balances.
Controls
- Monthly reconciliation checklist
- Ageing and ageing-threshold review
- Reviewer approval
- Exception closure tracking
Tests
- Inspect reconciliations for high-risk accounts
- Age unmatched items
- Trace reconciling items to subsequent clearance
- Review suspense and clearing account movement
Evidence
Balance-sheet reconciliation pack, ageing, subledger tie-out, bank/vendor/customer statements, clearance evidence and exception tracker.
Intercompany and related-party balances
Risk: Intercompany transactions, allocations, eliminations or related-party balances are unmatched, unsupported or disclosed incorrectly.
Controls
- Intercompany confirmation process
- Group reporting calendar
- Elimination review
- Related-party identification control
Tests
- Match intercompany balances both sides
- Review confirmations and disputes
- Test elimination entries
- Tie related-party list to disclosures and approvals
Evidence
Intercompany matrix, confirmations, dispute tracker, consolidation entries, related-party register, approval evidence and disclosure support.
Fixed assets and subledger tie-outs
Risk: Capex, CWIP, depreciation, disposals or subledger balances do not reconcile to the GL or reporting pack.
Controls
- Subledger-to-GL reconciliation
- Capitalisation review
- Depreciation run approval
- Disposal approval
Tests
- Reconcile FAR/CWIP to GL
- Trace additions and transfers
- Recompute depreciation for samples
- Review disposal and impairment indicators
Evidence
Fixed asset register, CWIP schedule, GL extract, depreciation run, capex approvals, disposal notes and physical verification support.
Tax provision and statutory ledger tie-outs
Risk: GST, TDS, income-tax, deferred-tax or other statutory balances are not reconciled to returns, challans, assessments and provision workings.
Controls
- Tax-ledger reconciliation
- Return-to-GL tie-out
- Provision review
- Demand/refund tracker
Tests
- Tie GST/TDS ledgers to returns and challans
- Review tax provision working
- Inspect open notices/demands/refunds
- Check ageing of statutory liabilities
Evidence
GST/TDS/income-tax ledgers, returns, challans, provision file, notice tracker, refund/demand register and management review.
Financial-statement mapping and disclosure pack
Risk: Trial-balance balances are mapped to the wrong line item, omitted from schedules or disclosed inconsistently with Schedule III / Ind AS / AS requirements.
Controls
- FS mapping review
- Disclosure checklist
- Prior-period comparison
- Schedule owner sign-off
Tests
- Trace TB to financial-statement schedules
- Review new GL mappings
- Check variance explanations
- Inspect disclosure checklist completion
Evidence
Trial balance, mapping file, financial-statement schedules, disclosure checklist, variance analysis and reviewer sign-off.
ERP access, close roles and monitoring
Risk: Users can create GL masters, post or approve journals, reopen periods, change mappings or run consolidation without proper segregation.
Controls
- Role-based access
- Period-lock control
- Privileged-user review
- Close activity monitoring
Tests
- Review GL/posting/admin access
- Test period reopen events
- Check leavers and shared IDs
- Review privileged activity and SoD conflicts
Evidence
ERP user list, role matrix, period-control log, access review, leaver list, privileged activity log and SoD report.
