Proper Authorization of Transactions and Activities
Employees perform tasks and make decisions that affect company assets. Because management lacks the time and resources to supervise each activity and decision, it establishes policies for employees to follow and then empowers them to perform accordingly. This empowerment, called authorization, is an important part of an organization's control procedures. Authorizations are often documented by signing, initializing, or entering an authorization code on a transaction document or record. Computer systems are now capable of recording a digital signature, a means of signing a document with a piece of data that cannot be forged. Digital signatures are discussed in more depth in Chapter 7