Controls that learn from near-misses
Each month-end, Kinnow counts what slipped past your controls and advises which rule to tighten next.
LiveWhat does Guided control tightening do? Each month you get advice on which control to tighten, based on your own entries rather than a yearly checklist.
How it works
At month-end close, Kinnow counts near-misses such as back-dated entries and people approving their own work. It ranks them into advice on what to tighten, placed in the close pack, each with document references your controller can check. Behaviour no rule can yet catch is listed separately. It is advice only; nothing changes by itself.
Back-dating is judged by the dates from your old system, so moving all your data over doesn't make every entry look back-dated.
Step by step
Here is how it runs for a company closing its books each month, with a finance manager as the controller.
- The close runs as usual. At month-end the accounts team works through the close checklist. The Close Checklist agent checks every step and hands back a close packet.
- Kinnow counts what slipped through. For the month just ended it counts two things and lists the entries behind each number: entries dated earlier than the day they were actually keyed in (back-dated), and entries approved by the same person who wrote them (self-approved).
- It ranks what you could tighten. A control is only suggested if the act actually happened in the period, you have not already tightened it, and it can be changed one step stricter. The top three go into the close packet, each with a short note such as "3 back-dated entries this month: route them for approval?".
- The controller checks the evidence. Each suggestion carries the document references, so the controller can open the entries and judge for themselves.
- A person decides. Nothing changes by itself. If you agree, you change that control on the Control posture screen; a change there applies at once and is recorded with your name.
- Next month the count shows whether it worked. If the control was tightened, the same entries should no longer appear in the count.
See what your last month-end would have flagged, with your own ledger.
What you see on screen
The advice sits in the close packet, and the dials it points to are on the Control posture screen.
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| Close packet, tightening advice | Up to three suggestions, each with the count, the period and the document references behind it. |
| Close packet, seen but not yet dialable | A separate list of behaviour Kinnow counted but that no control can yet stop. Self-approved journals sit here today, so you can see them even though you cannot yet block them. |
| Control posture screen | Each accounting action with its platform minimum, your setting and what carries it out. Settings run from blocked, to needs approval, to allowed with a warning, to allowed and recorded. |
Who uses it
A small group, once a month.
| Who | When | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Finance controller | At each month-end close | Reads the advice, opens the listed entries, decides whether to tighten. |
| Accounts executive | During the month | Sees fewer back-dated entries once the control is tightened. |
| Owner or CFO | Quarterly | Asks which controls were tightened and what the counts did afterwards. |
| Auditor | At year-end | Reads the signed control statement to see the settings and who set them. |
Ask us to run this advice on one of your own closed months.
Related
- Set your controls, give auditors signed proof: the screen where you act on the advice.
- Month-end close that runs itself: the close these counts come from.
- Close Checklist agent: the agent that produces the close packet.
- Account: the ledger and the close.
Questions
What is Guided control tightening in Kinnow?
Each month-end, Kinnow counts what slipped past your controls and advises which rule to tighten next.
What changes for the business?
Each month you get advice on which control to tighten, based on your own entries rather than a yearly checklist.
Is it available today?
Yes, it is live.
What counts as a back-dated entry?
An entry whose date is earlier than the day it was keyed in. Kinnow compares the two dates by day, and for entries migrated from an old system it uses the date they were entered there, not the date they were loaded into Kinnow.
Will Kinnow tighten a control on its own if I ignore the advice?
No. The advice is a suggestion with evidence attached. Only a person with the right permission can change a control, and the change is recorded with their name.
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