Flexible operational work item management across teams and departments
Management Controls is a dedicated ZedX application designed to help organisations assess how well internal controls are understood and applied in practice.
It supports periodic self-assessment by middle management, focusing on awareness of controls, consistency of application, and confidence in day-to-day operation.
By capturing structured responses, ratings, and contextual commentary, Management Controls provides early insight into weaknesses before they escalate into risks, incidents, or audit findings.
Define control themes and assessment structures
Run periodic self-assessments by middle management
Capture ratings and contextual commentary
Identify weaknesses in understanding or application
Highlight areas requiring clarification or support
Store and manage control documentation centrally
Link documentation directly to controls and questions
Monitor trends across teams and departments
Support early intervention before audit findings
Management Controls enables organisations to create their own control assessment framework, reflecting their governance structure, operational responsibilities, and regulatory requirements.
Control themes, assessment groups, guidance, and supporting information can all be configured to ensure managers assess the controls that matter most to their organisation.
Managers complete periodic self-assessments using structured questions based on their organisation's own control framework. Simple response options, supporting guidance, and automated progress tracking encourage consistent, meaningful assessments across every reporting period.
Assessment progress remains visible throughout the reporting cycle, helping ensure every control area is reviewed, completed, and ready for leadership oversight.
As assessments are completed, Management Controls provides a clear picture of how well controls are understood and applied across teams, departments, and organisational areas.
Dashboards help leadership identify strengths, emerging weaknesses, and trends over time, providing early insight before issues develop into risks, incidents, or audit findings.
Where weaknesses in control understanding or application create risk exposure, insights from Management Controls can inform Risk Registers, supporting proactive risk identification.
Where self-assessment identifies weaknesses requiring formal tracking or assurance, Audit Actions can be used to record recommendations as a self-assessment audit, ensuring consistent tracking, evidence capture, and closure.
Evidence from Management Controls can support governance statements by demonstrating active management understanding and oversight of internal controls.
What is ZedX Apps Management Controls, and who is it designed for?
Management Controls is an application designed to help organisations assess how well internal controls are understood and applied in everyday operations. It is particularly useful for operational managers, departmental heads, governance professionals, risk teams and senior leaders seeking greater confidence in their organisation's control environment.
What is a management control self-assessment?
A management control self-assessment is a structured review in which managers evaluate how effectively controls are understood and applied within their areas of responsibility. Rather than relying entirely on periodic internal audits, organisations can gather regular feedback from managers who work directly with these controls, helping identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
Can Management Controls replace Excel spreadsheets and questionnaires used for control assessments?
Yes. Management Controls provides a structured environment for defining control frameworks, organising assessment questions, collecting responses and monitoring completion. This reduces reliance on spreadsheets, emailed questionnaires and manually consolidated results while improving consistency, traceability and management visibility.
Can organisations create their own internal control assessment frameworks?
Yes. Organisations can configure control themes, assessment groups, questions and supporting guidance to reflect their operational responsibilities, governance arrangements and regulatory requirements. This allows management assessments to focus on the controls most relevant to the organisation rather than relying on a fixed, generic questionnaire.
How do managers complete control self-assessments?
Managers complete periodic assessments by responding to structured questions about the controls within their areas of responsibility. Responses can include ratings and explanatory commentary, supported by relevant guidance and documentation. Assessment progress is monitored throughout the reporting cycle, helping organisations maintain consistent participation and completion.
Can Management Controls identify weaknesses before they become audit findings?
Yes. By collecting regular assessments from operational managers, the application helps identify controls that may be poorly understood, inconsistently applied or insufficiently supported. This provides opportunities for clarification, additional guidance and early intervention before weaknesses develop into more significant operational problems or formal audit findings.
Can supporting policies, procedures and guidance be linked to individual controls?
Yes. Management Controls supports the central management of control documentation, including policies, procedures and supporting guidance. Relevant documents can be linked directly to controls and assessment questions, helping managers understand the requirements they are assessing and access the information needed to complete meaningful reviews.
How does Management Controls support senior management and board assurance?
Dashboards provide consolidated information about control assessments across teams, departments and organisational areas. Senior managers can monitor assessment completion, review control ratings, identify emerging weaknesses and observe trends over time. This provides an additional source of management assurance and supports informed discussions about the effectiveness of internal controls.
Can Management Controls work alongside Risk Registers, Audit Actions and Governance Statements?
Yes. Management Controls operates on the integrated ZedX Apps platform and complements other governance and assurance applications. Identified weaknesses can inform Risk Registers, while issues requiring formal corrective action can be managed through Audit Actions. Assessment results and supporting evidence can also contribute to Governance Statements, helping organisations demonstrate how internal controls are understood and monitored.
Does Management Controls include artificial intelligence?
Yes. Management Controls benefits from Cloe AI, the assistant integrated into the ZedX Apps platform. Users can obtain guidance, ask questions and receive assistance with understanding control requirements and assessment information. AI can help managers interpret guidance and prepare responses, while responsibility for accurate assessments and management assurance remains with the organisation.