Behunin & Associates provides internal controls consulting for organizations that need practical support with control design, implementation, remediation, improvement and operating effectiveness.
We help clients strengthen controls across business and IT processes, improve documentation, support audit readiness, and build more effective and efficient compliance programs. Whether your organization is preparing for SOX compliance, pursuing a SOC report, implementing a new system, or addressing control gaps, we provide clear, workable solutions tailored to the business, while reducing unnecessary effort.
When Organizations Engage Us
Organizations typically engage our team when they need to:
- Prepare for SOX compliance (.e.g. go public, merger with a public company, etc.)
- Establish or modify a SOX compliance program
- Implement or improve IT general controls
- Implement privacy controls
- Address control gaps, deficiencies, or audit findings
- Support implementation of a new system
- Reduce redundant or inefficient controls
- Improve process and data flow documentation design
- Strengthen audit readiness and compliance documentation
- Train control owners and improve control execution
Internal Control Design and Implementation
A strong control environment starts with understanding how your key processes work, where risks exist, and where controls are needed to address the relevant risks.
We start with a comprehensive understanding of the business process and related objectives and then identify the types of controls (i.e., automated or manual) that are possible, where controls are needed, may be missing, redundant or may not be operating effectively.
When control gaps or redundancies are identified, the next step is to design and implement controls or a suite of controls that better align with risk, improve consistency, and support efficiency and achieve compliance objectives. This also gives management and external auditors a clearer understanding of the control environment and how key risks are being addressed.
SOX and SOC Readiness Support
Companies preparing to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (i.e., SOX) requirements or obtain a SOC report often need to formalize internal controls, improve documentation, and establish more consistent execution.
If your control environment is still informal, implementing strong internal controls — including information technology general controls — will help create more structure and consistency. It will also help you establishclearer expectations around how controls should be performed, documented, and maintained over time.
With the right training and coaching, your team can build a stronger understanding of control responsibilities, improve readiness, strengthen compliance, and create a more sustainable control environment.
System Implementation Reviews
System implementations can introduce new or different risks that existing controls may not entirely mitigate or cause failures that affect both operations and compliance. We perform control reviews during implementation and post-go-live periods to help organizations identify the need for new controls and correct issues quickly to reduce disruption. We provide practical recommendations to strengthen control environments, improve compliance, and support more effective operations.
Control Rationalization
Over time, internal control environments can become overly complex. Controls may be redundant, outdated, overlapping, or more manual than necessary. This increases the costs and time demands for management, internal audit, and external auditors without improving outcomes.
We review internal controls and related procedures to identify gaps, reduce duplication, eliminate outdated activities, and increase the use of more efficient controls where appropriate. Control rationalization helps organizations streamline compliance efforts, reduce the number of controls that need to be documented and tested, and improve the overall effectiveness of the control environment.
Process Flow Mapping
Clear process documentation is an important part of an effective internal control framework. Process flow maps give you a clear view of process steps, key risks, and control points in a format that is easy to understand and use.
Process flow mapping helps organizations identify control gaps, overlapping responsibilities, and inefficiencies in process design. It also supports scoping and documentation for SOX compliance, SOC reporting, and internal audit projects.
Data Flow Mapping
Understanding how data moves across systems is critical to evaluating risks and designing effective controls. Our team develops data flow maps that illustrate interfaces between systems, how transactions are processed, and where key data dependencies exist.
Data flow mapping helps organizations identify interface risks, gaps in control design, overlapping controls, key reports, and areas that may require additional attention for compliance, audit, or system implementation purposes.
Control Owner Training and Documentation Support
Effective controls depend on control owners understanding what they are responsible for, why the control matters, and how to document performance appropriately. We provide training to help control owners understand the purpose of internal controls, how specific controls should be performed, and what documentation is needed to support internal and external audit requirements.
This training improves consistency, strengthens execution, and helps reduce exceptions, errors, and documentation issues.
Policy and Procedure Development
We help organizations create and implement policies and procedures. Policies and procedures provide instructions to individuals regarding how business processes are to be conducted including how internal controls are expected to function.
Privacy and Compliance Support
- Privacy Control Implementation: Privacy controls can help you strengthen the protection of personal information and determine whether related practices are working as intended.
- Corporate Integrity Agreement / Independent Review Organization Support: If your organization is subject to Corporate Integrity Agreement or Independent Review Organization requirements, a structured approach to documentation, information requests, and oversight activities can help improve readiness and support ongoing compliance.
Why Behunin & Associates
We bring a practical, hands-on approach to internal controls consulting, helping organizations improve control design, strengthen compliance, reduce unnecessary effort, and support audit readiness with solutions that work in real operating environments.