Segregation of duties in small finance teams: conflict matrices and compensating controls
For finance managers, controllers, senior bookkeepers and business owners who run a finance team of two to six people and are responsible for its controls. Complete 'Segregation of duties and audit trails' first; it introduces incompatible duties and compensating controls. This course goes deeper: building a conflict matrix for a process, mapping people and system roles against it, designing a compensating control precise enough to work, deciding and recording what to do about each conflict, and keeping it all current as people and systems change. It draws on the US GAO Green Book, Microsoft's Dynamics 365 documentation on segregation of duties rules, and the Charity Commission's internal financial controls guidance (England and Wales), adapted for small companies. This course is not accounting, audit or legal advice and doesn't qualify you to give it; your company's finance procedures and your auditors' requirements apply.
- Level
- Advanced
- Length
- About 102 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Build a segregation-of-duties conflict matrix for a finance process from its authority, custody, recording and review duties
- Map people and system roles against the matrix to find conflicts, including cover arrangements and administrator access
- Design a compensating control with a named independent reviewer, a frequency, enough precision and kept evidence
- Decide whether to remove, accept with a compensating control, or override a conflict, and record the reason
- Review segregation of duties after role changes, leavers, absences and system changes
Course outline
- 1.Building a conflict matrix from authority, custody, recording and review dutiesLesson · 19 min
- 2.Mapping people and system roles to find conflictsLesson · 18 min
- 3.Designing a compensating control that's precise enough to workLesson · 20 min
- 4.Deciding what to do about each conflict and recording the reasonLesson · 18 min
- 5.Reviewing segregation of duties after changesLesson · 17 min
- 6.Segregation of duties in small finance teams: conflict matrices and compensating controls: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Segregation of duties in small finance teams: conflict matrices and compensating controls: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- GAO-25-107721: Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (Green Book, May 2025)
- Microsoft Learn (Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations): Set up segregation of duties
- Microsoft Learn (Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations): Identify and resolve conflicts in segregation of duties
- Charity Commission for England and Wales: Internal financial controls for charities (CC8), GOV.UK
See it with your own jobs and topics
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