Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The term is commonly interchanged with ; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes.

Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either by target market:

Consumer marketing research, and Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research

Or, alternatively, by methodological approach:

Qualitative marketing research, and Quantitative marketing research

A Standing Operating Procedure: A set of instructions covering those features of operations which lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness. Also called SOP

Major Stages in the Preparation of an SOP Manual
The preparation of an SOP manual is an involved task and usually involves three major stages:

• Business systems and process study by intensive interaction with process owners, managers, operatives, etc. to understand in detail the tasks that are performed.
• Preparation of the draft manual
• Finalization of the draft manual after discussion with users where any errors are corrected and process improvement recommendations are discussed and accepted or rejected.

In accounting and auditing, internal control is defined as a process effected by an organization’s structure, work and authority flows, people and management information systems, designed to help the organization accomplish specific goals or objectives.[1] It is a means by which an organization’s resources are directed, monitored, and measured. It plays an important role in preventing and detecting fraud and protecting the organization’s resources, both physical (e.g., machinery and property) and intangible (e.g., reputation or intellectual property such as trademarks). At the organizational level, internal control objectives relate to the reliability of financial reporting, timely feedback on the achievement of operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. At the specific transaction level, internal control refers to the actions taken to achieve a specific objective (e.g., how to ensure the organization’s payments to third parties are for valid services rendered.) Internal control procedures reduce process variation, leading to more predictable outcomes

Internal control activities are designed to provide reasonable assurance that particular objectives are achieved, or related progress understood. The specific target used to determine whether a control is operating effectively is called the control objective. Control objectives fall under several detailed categories; in financial auditing, they relate to particular financial statement assertions, but broader frameworks are helpful to also capture operational and compliance aspects:

Existence (Validity): Only valid or authorized transactions are processed (i.e., no invalid transactions)

Occurrence (Cutoff): Transactions occurred during the correct period or were processed timely.

Completeness: All transactions are processed that should be (i.e., no omissions)

Validation: Transactions are calculated using an appropriate methodology or are computationally accurate.

Right & Obligations: Assets represent the rights of the company, and liabilities its obligations, as of a given date.

Presentation & Disclosure (Classification): Components of financial statements (or other reporting) are properly classified (by type or account) and described.

Reasonableness-transactions: or results appear reasonable relative to other data or trends.

For example, a control objective for an accounts payable function might be: “Payments are only made to authorized vendors for goods or services received.” This is a validity objective. A typical control procedure designed to achieve this objective is: “The accounts payable system compares the purchase order, receiving record, and vendor invoice prior to authorizing payment.”

Management is responsible for implementing appropriate controls that apply to transactions in their areas of responsibility. Internal auditors perform their audits to evaluate whether the controls are designed and implemented effectively to address the relevant objectives.