What Is a Separation of Duties?

Separation of duties is a mechanism for the separation of responsibilities and authorities between business units and business operators. The basic requirement is that the approval, recording, management and storage of business activities should be as independent as possible, and each person should be responsible. If complete separation cannot be achieved, other appropriate control procedures must also be used to make up for it. The duties that should be strictly separated mainly include the storage and accounting of cash, marketable securities and important blank documents, the review and approval of loans, the accounting and cashier, the seal management and the secret management, the front-end transactions and back-end of the capital transaction business Settlement, confirmation and write-off of losses, etc. ^[1]

Segregation of Duties

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Separation of duties is a mechanism for the separation of responsibilities and authorities between business units and business operators. The basic requirement is that the approval, recording, management and storage of business activities should be as independent as possible, and each person should be responsible. If complete separation cannot be achieved, other appropriate control procedures must also be used to make up for it. The duties that should be strictly separated mainly include the storage and accounting of cash, marketable securities and important blank documents, the review and approval of loans, the accounting and cashier, the seal management and the secret management, the front-end transactions and back-end of the capital transaction business Settlement, confirmation and write-off of losses, etc. ^[1]

Chinese name

Segregation of Duties

The division of responsibilities

The first is to separate the responsibilities of the computerized accounting department from the business department (the business department refers to the department or person who generates the original data), and to maintain as far as possible the separation of incompatible functions (such as business authorization, execution, storage, and records), and secondly, It is the separation of duties within the computerized posts of the finance department. Internal division of responsibilities to remedy the lack of centralization of incompatible functions. For example, in the manual accounting information system, the post settings are generally basic accounting positions such as accounting supervisor, cashier, auditing, and accounting positions. Accounting information managers are responsible for daily costing, asset managers are responsible for engineering and fixed asset management, fund managers are responsible for fundraising, budget managers are responsible for various fund budgets, cost estimates, and project budgets, etc., and accounting managers are responsible for each For economic and business compliance and legality audits, the cashier is responsible for the settlement of funds, and the above positions are separated according to the accounting system. After the implementation of computerization, the division of functions is performed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the accounting system. Computer supervisors or system administrators set the corresponding functional authority, account set authority, Operation time permissions, etc. Responsible for the review of personnel with regard to the setting of functional rights, without granting the authority to produce certificates, not as a cashier, and responsible for the authenticity, legality, and integrity of the business. The certificate-making personnel grants auditing authority, and the cashier does not give other work besides fixed asset management. The computer supervisor and system administrator are responsible for daily supervision, system security operation, data security, and coordination of staff relations. Accounting archives personnel are responsible for the storage of data discs, system discs, and various paper materials, but system discs and data discs should be kept separately.