Application controls in a client/server environment

  • Authors:

  • Fred de Koning

  • Affiliations:

  • Professor of Accounting Information Systems at Nyenrode University, The Netherlands and Partner of Mazars Paardekooper Hoffman, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • Integrity and internal control in information systems V
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

In client/server systems the integrity of data processing is threatened by the lack of control over the front end applications. The migration of controls from the application level to the database level might be a solution for this problem. This paper will analyze how essential application controls can be implemented in the database environment.Validation controls are important to check the accuracy of input, especially in case of manual input. The validation routines at the front end level can be considered to be more important for the support of the user ('self-control') than for the integrity of the corporate data. Essential validation routines should be implemented at the server level. Referential integrity, integrity constraints, stored procedures and database triggers can be used to support validation controls.For management and control purposes effective and reliable information about business processes is needed. It will be shown that this information can only be produced when the database that generates the information is based on a data model, that reflects the successive stages of the financial, logistic and physical flows in a company. The reliability of information about business processes can be further secured by reconciliation of control totals, generated for each stage. Data about variances between successive control totals, or between control totals and related standards, should be kept available for further investigation.