What is segregation of duties?
Also called: separation of duties, SoD
Last updated
Segregation of duties is an internal control that divides the steps of a sensitive task between different people, so that no one person can carry out and conceal an error or fraud. Typically the person who requests, the person who approves, the person who records and the person who holds the asset are kept separate.
In more detail
It matters most in finance, where one person able to create a supplier, approve its invoice and release the payment could pay themselves. It is also a security control: developers should not deploy their own code to production unreviewed, and administrators should not approve their own access.
Small teams cannot always separate every duty. Where they cannot, a compensating control helps, such as a manager reviewing a report of every change after the fact. Auditors look for both the rules and the evidence that they were followed.
Example
In a small accounts team, one person sets up new suppliers, another enters invoices, and the finance manager approves payment runs. Each month the controller reviews a report of new suppliers and changed bank details against the approvals.
Segregation of duties in CheckFlow
In CheckFlow the steps of a controlled process are separate tasks, assigned to different people or groups and completable only by their assignees, with approvals that halt the checklist until they are done. The activity feed shows who completed each step, which is the evidence an auditor asks for.
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