Lessons · Accounting · the only one of the three an organisation controls
The only one of the three an organisation controls
An employer cannot remove somebody's private pressure and cannot manage how they explain things to themselves. Opportunity is the only leg it can act on, which is why control design is the whole of prevention.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
It settles the argument that controls insult honest people. Controls are not a judgement about anybody; they remove the third condition from the situation, and their main beneficiary is the honest person who is never suspected because the records can show what happened.
How to think about it
Ask where one person can both create a transaction and conceal it. That is opportunity, and it is a design question rather than a hiring question.
Worked example
Pressure is private and cannot be removedNot an employer's to manage.
Rationalisation happens inside somebody's headAlso not reachable.
Opportunity is built into the processAnd can be designed out.
Which is why prevention is control designNot character assessment.
Your turn
Name the leg of the triangle an organisation can actually act on.
An organisation can act on , and on neither of the others
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Relying on trust as a control. Trust is what produces the opportunity in the first place: the person with the longest service and the fewest questions asked is the person best placed, and that is a fact about the process rather than about them.