Internal Controls & Financial Infrastructure
Build financial processes that keep pace with your organization.
Growth changes risk. New funding, more programs, staff transitions, and expanding research activity can stretch processes that once worked well.
Pennies Count helps nonprofits and research organizations design, document, and implement practical financial controls so responsibilities are clearer, financial activity is better supported, and leadership has a stronger foundation for oversight.
Let’s Talk It ThroughRecognize the pressure points
When the work has outgrown the process.
- Approvals depend on habit rather than defined authority.
- Critical accounting knowledge sits with one person.
- Responsibilities overlap or leave important reviews uncovered.
- Reconciliations and supporting records are inconsistent.
- New grants, contracts, or research programs have added demands without corresponding changes to workflows.
A clearer way to work
Give your team structure it can use.
Defined responsibilities. Documented workflows. Practical approvals. A clearer record of what happened and who reviewed it.
The work starts with how financial activity actually moves through your organization, then develops improvements suited to your staffing, systems, and funding complexity.
Management retains responsibility for decisions and the ongoing operation of controls.
What the engagement can deliver
Stronger structure behind the numbers.
Your engagement focuses on agreed processes and priorities. Deliverables may include:
Process maps and defined responsibilities
Document how transactions move from initiation through recording, reconciliation, reporting, and review. Clarify who prepares, approves, and reviews the work.
Policies and procedures your team can use
Develop or update financial procedures and approval requirements so expectations are understandable and responsibilities can survive staff transitions.
Controls matched to your operations
Design safeguards around the agreed workflows, including practical review arrangements where a small team limits segregation of duties.
Implementation and handoff support
Help management introduce the agreed changes and understand the documentation and responsibilities needed to operate them.
Management approves the design, assigns responsibilities, and owns ongoing operation and monitoring. Specific deliverables and implementation support are agreed before work begins.
How we work together
A clear scope. A practical path forward.
01 / Understand and scope
Agree on the priorities.
Discuss the concern, current workflow, staffing, and priorities. Agree on processes, deliverables, and responsibilities.
02 / Design and document
Develop the structure.
Develop practical controls, procedures, and role definitions with management’s input and approval.
03 / Implement and hand off
Put the changes to work.
Support the agreed rollout, explain the changes, and equip management to operate and monitor the process.
Engagement pricing is based on the agreed scope, complexity, and implementation needs.
Choose the right kind of support
A review, implementation, or independent oversight?
Internal Controls Review
A $750 consulting review of one agreed financial process to identify weaknesses and priorities. Implementation is separately scoped.
Explore the one-process review →Internal Controls Service
Design, document, and implement controls with management ownership. This is the service described on this page.
Discuss design and implementation →Internal Audit Services
Independent evaluation of agreed risks, activities, and controls, with documented findings reported to authorized governance.
Explore independent oversight →Pennies Count will not independently audit controls it designed or implemented. Internal audit of unaffected areas requires documented safeguards and independent coverage of excluded controls. Management remains responsible for corrective action.