Internal Controls

In addition to extensive security features, the system also has internal control features. Internal controls are mechanisms that help an organization comply with legal or regulatory requirements to reduce their exposure to potential liability imposed for violations. For example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 mandated that public companies must provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the organization’s internal control over financial reporting.

• Electronic signatures. Provides features that require users of some system programs to enter a valid user ID and password before they can create or update records. See Using Electronic Signatures.

• Auditing. The Auditing module integrates with the Progress OpenEdge Auditing capability in Progress OpenEdge 10. You can configure your system to maintain audit trails. Audit-trail records are created and stored in audit trail tables. They contain facts about changes made in the databases. A typical audit record includes information that helps you identify who made a change, which program made the change, when the change was made, and what the change was. You can set up these functions for all tables or you can limit the audit trail recording activity to specific tables. See Auditing.

• Segregation of duties. Provides features that prevent a user from participating in more than two parts of a transaction or process. This is accomplished by partitioning the system application resources into mutually exclusive categories. See Segregation of Duties.