Methods and alternatives to measuring and assessing ELCs and soft controls.

Entity level control (ELCs) s are often difficult to identify but even more difficult to assess. Soft controls are similar to entity level controls. They do not lend themselves to normal validation processes. Assessors must often utilize interviews, questionnaires and observations or other unique methods.
The other courses on top-down risk assessment discussed ELCs and some methods for assessment. This session will delve further into understanding approaches to assessing the design and operating effectiveness of ELCs and soft controls. We will cover methods and alternatives to measuring and assessing ELCs and soft controls.
Note: Information within this course comes from readily available public domain documents and is utilized by the trainer as a supplement for relaying the course content.
Field of Study: Auditing

Lynn Fountain has over 45 years of experience spanning public accounting, corporate accounting and consulting. 24 years of her experience has been working in the areas of internal and external auditing. She is a subject matter expert in multiple fields including internal audit, ethics, fraud evaluations, Sarbanes-Oxley, enterprise risk management, governance, financial management and compliance. Ms. Fountain has held two Chief Audit Executive positions for international companies. In 2011, as the Chief Audit Executive for an international construction/ engineering firm, she was involved in the active investigation of a joint venture fraud. The investigation included work with the FBI and ultimately led to indictment of the perpetrators and recovery of $13M. Ms. Fountain is currently engaged in her own training and consulting business and is a regular trainer for the AICPA. Ms. Fountain is the author of three separate technical books. “Raise the Red Flag – The Internal Auditors Guide to Fraud Evaluations” was published by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation. -“Leading The Internal Audit Function” and -“Ethics and The Internal Auditor Political Dilemma” were published by Taylor & Francis In addition Ms. Fountain was a contributing author to the certification program exam for the National Association of Accountants. She also has certificate programs on various on-line platforms. Ms. Fountain has performed as an adjunct instructor for the School of Business for Grantham University and developed the first internal audit curriculum for the School of Business at the University of Kansas. Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas. She has her CGMA, CRMA credentials and CPA certificate (non-active).