10 tips to maintain internal controls while employees are working remote

Working remote can lead to increased performance, productivity, and business continuity while helping employees achieve a better work-life balance. However, it’s important to establish and manage internal controls for tasks completed outside the office — otherwise these tasks can lead to higher risk and data loss.

The ten tips below constitute a good starting place for organizations seeking to develop internal controls that account for work-from-home (WFH) employees.

1. Electronic signatures

With more employees working from home, it can be challenging to share paper copies of documents and obtain signatures in a timely manner. Using an e-signature shortens turnaround times for acquiring signatures and eliminates the need to reintroduce paper into the workflow.

Many e-signature programs offer enhanced security with automatic independent verification. They also prevent documents from being saved on untrusted servers and being exposed to tampering and fraud risks.

Ultimately, e-signatures reduce paper, printing costs, and the amount of time it takes to sign and collect documents — making the process convenient for organizations with WFH employees.

2. Electronic payments

Electronic payments are convenient often allowing transactions to be completed by entering a few data points. In addition to convenience, there are two key benefits:

• Elimination of paper waste as well as the cost of postage and envelopes
• Availability and flexibility of different payment options such as automated clearing house (ACH) and wire transfer

3. Electronic approvals

Approval processes and procedures account for most of the common delays within organizations. These delays can frustrate standard processes and cause unwanted effects such as unauthorized spending. In some cases, they can even bring the entire process to a halt.

Paper requests are prone to loss, and out-of-office approvers can significantly delay the process. Electronic approvals, on the other hand, provide a faster response and more visibility regarding the status of a request. These electronic approvals can be made via email and should be retained as support for transaction approval.

4. Lockbox considerations

A lockbox collection system allows employees to process donations quickly by speeding up payment processing times and improving the management of donor collections. With traditional donation processing, an employee must match a payment to a bill or donor receipt, log the donation into the system, and take the payment to the bank before it can be deposited.