Identity Controls
Management must identify one or more controls that will protect the company from each event. In evaluating the benefits of specific internal control procedures. management should consider their effectiveness and timing. All other factors being equal. a preventive control is superior to a detective one. However, if preventive controls fail, detective controls are essential for discovering the problem. and controls help corrective recover from the problem. Thus. preventive, detective, and corrective controls complement each other, and a good internal control system should all three. Similarly. employ a company should make use of the four levers of control discussed earlier in the chapter.