What are Control Activities?

Control activities are those policies and procedures used to ensure that an organization carries out the directives of the management team. There are many control activities, including the segregation of duties to require the involvement of multiple personnel in transactions, and the physical safeguarding of assets to reduce their risk of loss.

A risk audit may uncover instances in which more controls are needed, in which case management may elect to install additional control activities. The volume of control activities installed is limited by their cost-effectiveness. Typically, only highly cost-effective control activities will be installed.