Control exceptions register
- 0 exceptions, USD 0 of payments.
- 0 items with a reason on record, linked to the evidence.
Financial Intelligence
Financial governance
Cash, risk and unusual transactions are watched by different people with different tools, and action is slow.
Demonstration: Fairholme Holdings (fictional) · Diversified holding company. Fictional data and a scripted answer.
The situation
- Organisation
- Fairholme Holdings (fictional)
- Who is asking
- Group financial controller
- Industry
- Diversified holding company
- What happened
- External auditors will test segregation of duties and delegated authority on payments, and the controller wants to find exceptions first.
The question asked
Which payments broke our approval rules, and which have a recorded reason?
What it reads, and who can see the result
- Payments with approvers exportRequester, approver, limit and date.
- Delegated authority table registerLimits by role and delegation dates.
- Vendor master change log exportBank detail changes.
- Reads
- Payment lines, the people who requested and approved them, the authority table and the vendor change log.
- Does not read
- The bank account numbers themselves, or employee personal data.
- Permission
- Group finance and internal control read access.
- Who sees it
- The group controller, the audit committee and the external auditors, by request.
Try it
Review each flagged record: confirm it or dismiss it. The totals and the answer below follow your decisions.
| Payment | Payee | Requested / approved by | Payment (USD) | Finding | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAY-7101 | Calder Pallets | A. Rowe / M. Sethi | 9,800 | Matched | None needed |
| PAY-7118 | Orrin Films | K. Lindqvist / K. Lindqvist | 18,400 | Requested and approved by the same person | |
| PAY-7124 | Fenwick Energy | A. Rowe / M. Sethi | 14,230 | Matched | None needed |
| PAY-7139 | Harrow Legal | T. Barclay / J. Oduya | 61,000 | Approved above J. Oduya's 50,000 limit | |
| PAY-7150 | Nettle & Co | A. Rowe / M. Sethi | 7,250 | Matched | None needed |
| PAY-7162 | Verity Studio | T. Barclay / M. Sethi | 22,700 | Bank details changed two days before payment; no callback recorded | |
| PAY-7171 | Hale Cleaning | A. Rowe / M. Sethi | 6,100 | Matched | None needed |
| PAY-7188 | Studio North | K. Lindqvist / T. Barclay | 31,900 | Approved after the payment date |
- Flagged
- 4 of 8 · USD 134,000
- Control exception
- 0 · USD 0
- Reason on record
- 0 · USD 0
- Undecided
- 4 · USD 134,000
The answer
Simulated answer. Written for this fictional case, not produced by a live model. Only the figures in it are computed, from what you decided above.
4 of 8 payments broke an approval rule, USD 134,000 in all.
Four different controls are involved: segregation of duties, delegated limits, vendor bank-detail changes and approval timing [S1][S2][S3]. They carry different risk. A change of bank details without a callback is the pattern that fraud usually follows and deserves first attention.
You have recorded 0 as control exceptions (USD 0) and 0 as having a reason on record (USD 0). 4 are undecided (USD 134,000).
Relies on: S1 · Payments with approvals, Q3 sampleS2 · Delegated authority tableS3 · Vendor master change log
Review and approval
The group financial controller decides. Approving the exception register adds the confirmed exceptions to the control-deficiency log for the auditors. It does not reverse a payment.
Not ready to approve. 4 flagged exceptions are still undecided. Confirm or dismiss each one first.
In the product this is a different person with the right permission. Here you play that role to see the rule.
What it produces
Audit trail for the auditors
- Each exception cites the rule it broke and the lines it was found in.
Limits of this example
- An exception is an observation against the rule as written; the reason for a delegation may exist outside the data.
- The sample shown is illustrative; a real run covers the whole population.
- This is a scripted demonstration on fictional data. No model was called and no real organisation, person or result is shown.
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