What is the four-eyes principle?
Also called: maker-checker, two-person rule, dual control
Last updated
The four-eyes principle means that an important action must be checked and approved by a second person before it takes effect, so two people, or four eyes, have looked at it. It is used for payments, changes to bank details, journal entries, access requests and production changes, to catch mistakes and make fraud harder.
In more detail
In finance it is often called maker-checker: one person prepares the payment or entry, a different person checks and releases it. The checker should look at the evidence, not just the summary, and should be someone without a reason to wave it through.
The principle is a practical form of segregation of duties. It only works if the system or process stops the first person approving their own work, and if there is a record of who prepared and who approved each item.
Example
A supplier emails new bank details. An accounts assistant records the change and calls the supplier on the number already on file to confirm it. A finance manager then reviews the call note and the request and approves the change. Only then can a payment go to the new account.
The four-eyes principle in CheckFlow
In CheckFlow the preparing step and the approving step are separate tasks assigned to different people or groups. The approval step can be completed only by its assignees and halts the checklist until it is done, and the activity feed records who prepared and who approved each item.
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