Internal Controls for Small and Mid-Size Businesses

Strengthen your ability to assess, advise on, and implement internal controls in small and mid-size business environments where the stakes are high and resources are limited. This practical webinar goes beyond theory to address the day-to-day realities accountants face when evaluating control environments without deep staffing, dedicated compliance teams, or enterprise-level systems.

Attendees will learn how to identify the control gaps that matter most, communicate risk effectively to leadership, and recommend solutions that are both rigorous and appropriately scaled.

Led by Shana Cooper, CPA, founder of The AccountAbility Team, LLC, this session draws on decades of accounting leadership experience spanning public accounting, corporate controllership, and consulting engagements. Through real-world scenarios and practical, experience-based discussion, Cooper examines the control challenges accountants encounter most often in smaller organizations and provides a useful lens for evaluating and strengthening those environments.

She helps attendees refine their professional judgment around control design, segregation of duties limitations, and the development of meaningful recommendations that clients and leadership teams are more likely to implement.

• Internal control frameworks applied to the realities of small and mid-size organizations
• The most common—and most costly—control gaps in lean environments
• Core control types—prevention, detection, and correction—and how to apply them effectively
• Working within real-world staffing limitations when designing for segregation of duties
• Practical approaches to evaluating and prioritizing control improvements

• Apply internal control concepts to assess the effectiveness of control environments in small and mid-size organizations.
• Identify high-risk control gaps and develop prioritized recommendations for improvement.
• Design and communicate scalable control solutions that account for staffing and operational constraints.
• Strengthen your ability to protect client and employer organizations from fraud, error, and compliance exposure.
• Gain greater confidence in the reliability of financial reporting produced in lean-team environments.
• Improve your capacity to advise leadership on control investments that align with organizational risk tolerance.
• Enhance your credibility as a trusted advisor on risk, process, and financial integrity.
• Take away practical frameworks that translate directly into client engagements, internal assessments, and team training.

This webinar offers immediate professional value for accounting professionals who work with or within small and mid-size businesses. Attendees will leave with stronger professional judgment, clearer frameworks for assessing risk, and practical strategies they can apply right away to drive meaningful improvements in control environments.

Level: Intermediate
Format: Live webcast
Instructional Method: Group: Internet-based
NASBA Field of Study: Accounting (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites: None
Advance Preparation: None