ITPEC IP April 2018 Question 65
IT controls are classified into IT application controls and IT general controls. IT application controls refer to the control activities for ensuring that all approved business operations in the system for managing business operations are processed and recorded appropriately. IT general controls refer to the control activities for guaranteeing the environment in which each IT application control functions effectively. Which of the following controls in a company that performs development and operation of its in-house systems, such as the purchase management system, corresponds to IT application controls?
Explanation
Preventing duplicated entry in the purchase management system — a check built into one business application to make sure its transactions are recorded exactly once.
IT application controls work inside a particular business application to ensure input, processing and output are complete, accurate and valid: input checks, preventing duplicate or missing entries, reconciling totals. IT general controls support all applications and typically cover development and maintenance, operation and management, security and access management, and management of outsourced work. A duplicate-entry check applies to purchase data in one system, so it is an application control.
Answer (b)
Why not others:
- •(a) — access management and security for the in-house systems as a whole is a general control, the security area
- •(c) — the operation and management of the systems is a general control, the operations area
- •(d) — the development and maintenance of the systems is a general control, the development area
Key rule: If a control checks the data of one business process in one application, it is an application control; if it protects the environment every application runs in, it is a general control.
System Audit · AI-written, may contain errors
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