- Establish written internal controls and accounting procedures, including segregation of duties, in a form appropriate for the scale of the land trust, to prevent the misuse or loss of funds.
Background
Internal controls are a system of checks and balances that keeps any one person from having complete control over a financial transaction. Proper internal controls are crucial, not only to help protect the organization against theft, fraud and loss due to unethical or illegal behavior, but also to inspire confidence in donors, regulators and other board members. Controls may include requiring multiple signatures for large cheques, having one-person log in cheques received and another responsible for making bank deposits and requiring multiple bids for certain contracts.