Influence of internal control on enterprise management informatization
Abstract: Internal control is an important part of modern enterprise management, and it is the general name of various forms of internal management control. In enterprise information management, internal control directly affects the rationality, economy and efficiency of enterprise internal management; Maintain the security and integrity of assets and resources; Affect the authenticity, accuracy and reliability of enterprise work; Ensure the implementation of management decisions. Perfect internal control system is an important management means for the sustainable development of modern enterprises. This paper analyzes the influence and function of internal control on enterprises, and probes into the methods of perfecting the internal control of management information system.
[Keywords:] management information; Internal control; Influence and function
I. Introduction
Internal control refers to an enterprise's self-discipline system that checks, restricts and regulates the operation and management of the enterprise and its activity process in order to reasonably ensure the efficiency of its business activities, the reliability of financial reports and the compliance of laws and regulations. COSO believes that internal control runs through the whole process of business activities, including control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, supervision and other elements. Most township enterprises, family enterprises and even some large state-owned enterprises in China are still unfamiliar with the internal control of the system, so it is necessary to popularize the internal control theory and improve the internal control system of enterprises.
Second, the importance of internal control of enterprise management information system
According to the feedback control theory of information management, the management process is a continuous cycle from information input to output, and after feedback and correction, new information input is formed. The duration of each cycle is the management cycle, and the duration reflects the management efficiency. Therefore, to shorten the management cycle and improve management efficiency, it is inseparable from internal control. Internal control is an integral part of enterprise management activities and an important means to achieve enterprise goals. If the management activities are well done and the internal control is effective, the enterprise can achieve its goals and obtain rich profits, thus ensuring its survival and development ability. If the internal control is invalid, the enterprise's goal will be difficult to achieve, and the enterprise will lose its competitiveness and even endanger its survival. It can be seen that internal control is an important means of enterprise management and an important link of management information system, and enterprise managers should attach great importance to it.
Third, the impact of internal control on internal management of enterprises
(A) the impact of internal control on corporate culture
Internal control should first consider how to establish enterprise concept, shape enterprise culture, and then affect the control consciousness of enterprise employees.
(1) Internal control affects the formation of corporate reputation. The good reputation of an enterprise is the foundation of its survival and development, and it is the intangible asset of an enterprise. Internal control should enable the management and other members of the enterprise to: strictly and consistently maintain honest behavior and moral standards; Strengthen the internal audit system of enterprises; Give full play to the functions of the board of directors and make it objectively supervise the top management of the enterprise; Formulate written code of conduct and policy statement and communicate it to all employees; Make employees realize that maintaining corporate reputation is their sacred duty, and their own image is the epitome of corporate image, and gradually strengthen corporate reputation awareness.
(2) Internal control has established the management style of the enterprise. Internal control checks, restricts and regulates the operation and management of enterprises and their activities, so that enterprise operators can be clear about: the way to treat and bear business risks; Communicate with key managers by relying on written policies, performance indicators and reporting systems; Attitude towards financial reporting and measures taken; Attitude towards information processing and personnel.
(3) Internal control defines the responsibilities and authority of managers. Internal control emphasizes the reasonable and effective distribution of responsibilities and authorities for all activities within the organization, providing and equipping the members of the organization who perform tasks and assume responsibilities, especially those in key positions, and ensuring that their experience and knowledge match their responsibilities and authorities.
(4) Internal control standardizes human resources policies and practices. Internal control is a human resource policy and practice implemented by people and influenced by human factors, which ensures that all members of the organization have a certain degree of integrity, morality and ability. It is one of the key factors for the effectiveness of internal control. Specifically, it includes: having perfect recruitment and selection policies and operational procedures; Conduct induction training for new employees on corporate culture and moral values; Formulate disciplinary restraint and punishment measures for any violation of the code of conduct; For employees with good performance, formulate reward and incentive plans to avoid inducing unethical behavior; According to the periodic performance evaluation results, employees are promoted, guided and rewarded.
(B) internal control affects the sensitivity of enterprises to information
Whether the internal control activities are smooth or not directly affects the degree of information acquisition and utilization of enterprises. Successful internal control can enable employees to obtain internal information symmetrically, make clear the production and business objectives, and make each employee clearly know the specific responsibilities he undertakes. At the same time, internal control opens up the channels for employees to communicate important information to their superiors, and avoids the contradiction between employees and enterprises. At the same time, it provides employees with an effective way to communicate with external customers, suppliers, government agencies and shareholders. Specific performance in:
(1) Internal control affects the execution of enterprise management instructions. Whether the plans or instructions of management decision makers can be carried out in time and properly depends to a great extent on whether the supervision and incentive mechanism of internal control is perfect. If an effective supervision and incentive mechanism is established in the internal control, the responsibilities and interests of employees will be organically linked together, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of employees, give play to the spirit of ownership of employees, and make the management's decisions be implemented smoothly.
(2) Internal control strengthens the information communication between enterprises and employees. The internal control system ensures the smooth flow of information at all levels within the enterprise, so that employees can understand their own business, know their specific tasks, and understand the provisions of the internal control system and how to take effect; What actions should employees take to prevent the recurrence of unexpected events when performing tasks? At the same time, employees have ways to convey important information upward in the organization. In this way, the contradiction between enterprises and employees can be reflected and solved in time.
(3) Internal control integrates all departments of the enterprise, so that enterprise information can be effectively enjoyed. All departments in the enterprise are interrelated and have certain independence. Internal control can organically integrate all departments, realize information sharing among all departments, and enable management to grasp the production, sales and inventory of enterprises in time and adjust production plans in time.
In addition, the internal control system can also provide information such as industry analysis report, market survey report or accounting statement to the management in time through evaluation and report, so that the management can make decisions based on evidence.
(C) the ability of internal control to affect enterprise risk assessment
Before the establishment of information system, the internal control system of enterprises was often a pile of documents and manuals, and the implementation process could only be checked and evaluated regularly. This makes the risk assessment of enterprises slow, and enterprises can't avoid risks in time. The information system makes dynamic and real-time control possible, and the internal control changes from post supervision inspection to pre-event and in-event control mode, which better embodies the risk assessment mechanism focusing on prediction and prevention.
(D) Internal control affects the management decisions of enterprises.
COSO report believes that control activities are policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of management instructions, aiming at helping enterprises to ensure that necessary actions are taken against "risks that make enterprise goals impossible to achieve". Control activities will appear at all levels and functions within the enterprise, mainly including:
(1) Strategic decisions made by top managers on enterprises. The responsibility of senior managers is to set the overall objectives of the organization, master the major policies of the organization and evaluate the performance of the whole enterprise. Its control activities involve many uncertain factors and variables, which is a complex work. The result of its control activities is the formation of enterprise plans.
(2) Middle management decision-making. Middle managers are responsible for implementing major decisions made by top managers and supervising and coordinating the work of grass-roots managers. The output of middle management is a measure of production scheduling and completion plan. The manager in charge of a department rechecks the performance report of his department and examines the business activities of the department in order to make clear the trend.
(3) Grass-roots managers. Grass-roots managers, also known as front-line managers, are mainly responsible for operators, assign specific tasks to operators, and directly direct and supervise on-site operations. Such as protecting the physical safety of equipment, inventory, securities, cash and other assets, whether the production operation is correct, whether it is produced according to the product quality requirements, etc. The result of its control activities is the product itself or the service. The internal control system should provide standardized operating procedures and instructions.
Fourth, the impact of internal control on enterprise accounting work
In the enterprise information environment, internal control provides control of data center operation; Control of system software; Control of access security; Control of accounting computerization steps and related manual procedures; Control the development and maintenance of application system; The control of information processing, such as the control of information input and output, can ensure the fair and true reflection of accounting information in the case of changes. Specific performance in:
(A) the internal control steps of computerized accounting have changed the traditional accounting model.
The internal control of computer system is mainly program control and system control. After the implementation of computerized accounting, many internal control methods are mainly realized by accounting software except people, and the traditional accounting model has changed.
(B) The control of information input and output by internal control affects the accuracy of accounting data.
In the enterprise information system, accounting data can be collected and processed directly from the database system, which reduces the probability of accounting data input errors and improves the accuracy and timeliness of accounting data. However, if there are errors in the data itself, accountants will passively accept the generated data for accounting treatment, and the errors may have an impact on the accounting system. We should try our best to avoid such mistakes when implementing internal control.
(C) internal control of information access security control, affecting the reliability of accounting data
To control the security of information access, we should pay attention to the security defects of application software and the low security performance of equipment to ensure the safety and reliability of accounting data. In the design and development stage of the existing accounting application software system, there is a general phenomenon that there are few security requirements in the system requirements, and the software design emphasizes function over security. The language and database selected in software design give little consideration to security performance, so that many security risks are exposed after the software is put into operation, such as the inability to guarantee data integrity when accessing information; Data is easy to be stolen; Data overflow and other security issues. Such phenomena and problems have not been completely changed at present, and many security facilities are not fully configured, especially the hardware itself has low security performance. These security risks increase the difficulty of internal control, and also reflect the necessity of internal control for information access security.
(d) The internal control of data center operation and the development and maintenance of application systems require the managers of enterprises to have high quality.
In the enterprise information environment, because the internal control work is more and more detailed and the management is more and more specialized, the role of information system managers is more and more important. Information system managers have mastered the core resources of accounting, such as computer programs, databases, etc., which is just like the accounting books kept by accountants in the past have always been kept by information system managers, and because information system managers are familiar with information technology, they are not excluded from the ability to change accounts. At the same time, in practical work, due to the lack of information technology knowledge of accounting personnel, when carrying out some special accounting treatment, or when there are problems in the accounting treatment process, they can only be solved by information system managers. When solving problems, accountants sometimes provide their own codes and passwords, so that information system managers can easily master the rules for accountants to set codes and passwords. If the accountant does not change the password in time afterwards, the information system administrator can even directly use the accountant's password to enter the accounting system. These circumstances require enterprise managers to have noble moral character and excellent professional ethics, and under no circumstances can they violate the internal control system.
Five, establish and improve the internal control methods of management information system
(A) the establishment of rules and regulations, strengthen the internal system of enterprises.
After the implementation of system information management, the key to the normal, safe and effective operation of information system is operation and use. If the unit management system is not perfect or ineffective, it will give all kinds of illegal fraud an opportunity. Therefore, the changes in management methods and objects have also given new connotations to the internal control system.
First of all, we should strictly manage and control institutions and personnel, and formulate post responsibility systems for all kinds of personnel. The post after computerized accounting can be divided into basic accounting post and computerized accounting post. Basic accounting posts can include: accounting supervisor, cashier, accountant, auditor, accounting file management and other posts; Computerized accounting positions include: direct management, operation and maintenance of computers and accounting software systems. Institutional adjustment must be combined with organizational control in order to realize the separation of functions and powers, effectively limit and find mistakes or illegal acts in time. For example, it is stipulated that system developers and maintenance personnel cannot concurrently serve as system operators and managers.
Secondly, the operating environment of the system should be strictly controlled. Formulate a complete and strict set of operating procedures to control the operating procedures. The operating procedures should define the responsibilities, operating procedures and matters needing attention, and form a set of computerized system documents. For example, it is stipulated that the handover procedure and running log registration, data backup and machine use specifications, and floppy disks are specially used to prevent virus infection.
Finally, we should establish and improve the file management system. These files mainly refer to printed account books, statements, vouchers, floppy disks and other storage media for storing accounting data and programs. In addition, we should attach great importance to the development and training of computerized talents, and provide necessary material and financial resources for this purpose, so as to create a high-quality accounting science and technology team and provide human and intellectual support for computerized accounting work.
(2) Establish an information system evaluation mechanism and continuously optimize the system.
Whether the internal control of an enterprise is sound and effective, especially its impact on accounting, needs to be evaluated after continuous control. In practical work, due to various reasons, when evaluating internal control, we often pay attention to the understanding, testing and evaluation of business processing control, but ignore the effective implementation and sound review of information system control, resulting in loopholes in information system control, resulting in the relevant data in the information system being changed intentionally or unintentionally, so that the quality of accounting information in subsequent accounting processing cannot be guaranteed. Enterprises should not only establish information system control, but also test and evaluate the established control, especially evaluate whether the accounting information system control is sound and effective, so as to find problems and correct them in time.
The control test of accounting information system and related business systems includes control design test and control execution test. Control design test is to determine whether the control design of accounting information system is reasonable and appropriate, that is, to test the control soundness of accounting information system. Control execution test is to determine whether the current accounting information system control exists and plays a role, that is, to test the effectiveness of accounting information system control. Because information system control includes both manual control and computer program control, it is impossible to complete this work by relying solely on traditional control testing methods, so computer-aided audit technology must be used to conduct a comprehensive test of information system control. In practical work, we should choose the corresponding control test technology according to different control forms.
After testing the control of accounting information system, it is necessary to evaluate whether each control is sound and effective. In view of the identified control weaknesses, in-depth research and analysis are carried out, and suggestions for improving the control of accounting information system are put forward and perfected in time. We should fundamentally solve the problems in the information system control system.
(3) Give full play to the incentive function of the system and mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of employees.
A perfect management control system must be integrated with people. In the management activities of enterprises, manpower is the most active and key factor. To run an enterprise well, improve labor productivity and increase economic benefits, the most important thing is to mobilize people's enthusiasm and develop human resources. Human resources have great potential. According to a survey, employees can basically complete their tasks by putting 20% ~ 30% of their abilities into their work every day. If the enthusiasm of employees can be fully mobilized, their potential can be brought into play to 80% ~ 90%. In addition, with the progress of science and technology, mental work has gradually become the main form of labor, which requires more mobilization of employees' enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, because mental work cannot be piecework.
(d) Training managers to improve their professional skills.
Enterprises in China must strengthen the professional training of employees according to the different degree of enterprise management informatization, so as to adapt to the new requirements of information management posts and form a good human resource structure. First of all, enterprises in China must introduce competition mechanism, form a meritocratic employment mechanism according to the principles of market competition and survival of the fittest, and allocate qualified talents for the development and growth of enterprises. Secondly, the quality of managers plays a very important role in enterprise management. The different qualities of managers have different influences on the development of enterprises, which in turn affects the efficiency and effect of internal control of enterprises. The quality of enterprise managers not only refers to knowledge and skills, but also includes morality, values and world outlook. The types of business risks undertaken by enterprises, the management mode of the whole enterprise, the response of enterprise management to laws and regulations, the importance attached to enterprise finance, and the policies and views on human resources all deeply affect the effectiveness of internal control.
Ending of intransitive verbs
To sum up, internal control is essentially an internal problem for enterprises to improve management, and it is to realize the rationality, economy and efficiency of internal management by using control theory and management information system. It is an important management means to strengthen the effective supervision of enterprises on accounting work, safeguard the safety and integrity of assets and resources and improve economic benefits under the information environment. China's enterprise management must introduce or strengthen internal control and improve the internal control system under the information environment, so as to enhance the competitiveness and viability of enterprises and ensure their sustainable development.