Finance Controls Checklist
Separation of duties, approvals, and audit-ready bookkeeping.
“Every major financial scandal in business history started as a small control gap someone assumed nobody would exploit. Don't assume. Install the controls.”
The Insight
Financial controls are not mistrust of your people. They are trust at scale — the structure that keeps good people clean and catches bad behaviour early. SMBs that install controls during growth survive the audit, the diligence, and the fraud case that happens to every long-lived business sooner or later.
01
Separation of Duties
These are non-negotiable above 10 people — below, the founder holds both roles explicitly. Above, separation protects everyone, including from honest mistakes.
02
Approval Thresholds
Every spend has a threshold. Under £500, line manager. Above £25,000, CEO plus board or lead investor notification. Most SMB fraud happens in the £2K–£20K band because nobody looks closely enough and nobody has authority to stop it.
03
Audit-Ready Books Every Month
Every expense has a receipt attached in the system within seven days. Every invoice has a matching PO or contract. If someone walked in tomorrow to audit the books, they could start in an hour, not three weeks of panic prep.
The Takeaway
Separate duties, enforce thresholds, keep books audit-ready. Controls are kindness — to your team, your investors, your future self, and the acquirer you may never meet.
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