Overview

As a CEO, CFO, COO, you may be in your office and faced with the daunting task of signing your name to official corporate correspondence. What makes this so frightening is that you may be unknowingly falsifying information to the government that states you are certifying the corporate fiscal statement that details of the corporate quarterly fiscal report are true and accurate. In fact, you know that because of the rapid pace of change in your business this past year, you are not sure anyone knows the correct answer. Your team, at best, can only make a calculated guess that may have more significant errors in this required assessment prepared for the government than the government allows.

In realizing the consequences of certifying this report to the government, you worry about what you are doing. Are placing your career, your job, your family, at risk every three months? You bet you are and more. You fear that you are risking personal financial penalty and jail time when in fact you may have nothing to do with the errors in the report. This is the best your team can do given the information at hand.

What can YOU do about this? As one of the executive leaders in your business, you have the opportunity to initiate improvement in fiscal controls to lessen risk for the corporate entity that you serve, as well as you and others who are subjected to this same standard and penalty. Knowing what the business must...