Help is at hand for your internal controls.

• Position: 'Corporate Framework' software - From FEI

Do you need a better way to evaluate your internal control systems? How easily can you demonstrate these controls to your board? Or are you looking for an easy way to install an effective control system for the first time?

Practical help is now at hand: simple-to-use software that enables any company to evaluate its own operations and controls.

The new software is based on the report titled Internal Control--Integrated Framework by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO). These COSO guidelines have been welcomed by corporate executives, despite General Accounting Office (GAO) protestations. (See Financial Executive, January/February 1993.) They're the result of a three-year effort recommended by the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (also called the Treadway Commission). The guidelines establish a general reference point for assessing the quality of internal control systems.

The COSO framework, however, raises a practical question for financial executives. How do you apply COSO guidelines to your own internal controls?

That's where the new software comes in. It's called "Corporate Framework" and is being offered exclusively by FEI to assist members in their implementation of the internal control framework.

The software enables executives to use an automated system to review, monitor and report on their internal control practices and procedures. Another advantage: Companies don't have to write their own data base to do this; they're able to customize the "Corporate Framework" software to fit their needs.

"It's ideal for small companies with no audit department," says Penelope A. Flugger, senior vice president and auditor at J.P. Morgan. "It produces the documentation they need to show that they're conforming with COSO's framework. But it also helps large companies, whose auditors in the past may have sampled only higher-risk operations for compliance."

Self-assessment will...