Internal and System Controls Overview 3 CPE

Taking this course will provide an overview of the essential elements of internal and systems controls. Special consideration is given to understanding risk, internal control frameworks, corporate governance, legal requirements, the role of external and internal auditing, and systems controls.

Topics include: 

• Risks and Internal Controls
• Internal Control Framework
• Types of Internal Controls
• Governance and the Board of Directors
• Legal Compliance
• Role of External Auditors
• Role of Internal Auditors
• Systems Controls
• Security Measures

The content covered in this course provides a pathway to developing your analytical and critical-thinking skills and closing skills gaps in a variety of relevant topics. 

Prerequisites

No advanced preparation or prerequisites are required for this course. However, it is recommended to take the other courses in the series prior to completing this one.

Learning Objective

• Explore risk and how internal controls can mitigate risk, and recognize the concepts of inherent risk, control risk and detection risk.
• Identify the five components of the Committee of Sponsoring Organization's (COSO) internal control model.
• Identify the Board of Directors role related to company operations and the shareholders.
• Explore the internal control portions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act.
• Recognize the role of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in providing guidance in auditing internal controls.
• Explore the internal audit function and identify its scope.
• Identify and recognize the internal control breakdowns and related risks that the internal audit function should report to management and the Board of Directors.
• Identify and recognize the use of physical controls, logical controls, transaction controls, storage controls, and systems development controls.
• Discover threats to information systems and ways to mitigate information security threats.
• Explore the objective of a disaster recovery plan.
• Explore business continuity planning.

Last updated/reviewed: July 24, 2025