Comptroller

A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.

In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the government and of government-owned companies. Typically, the independent institution headed by the Comptroller General is member of the INTOSAI. In American government, the Comptroller is effectively the Chief Financial Officer of a public body.

In business management, the Comptroller is closer to a Chief Audit Executive, holding a senior role in internal audit functions. Generally, the title encompasses a variety of responsibilities, from overseeing accounting and monitoring internal controls to countersigning on expenses and commitments.

Etymology

The term comptroller evolved in the 15th century through a blend of the French compte ("an account") and the Middle English countreroller (someone who checks a copy of a scroll, from the French contreroule "counter-roll, scroll copy"), thus creating a title for a compteroller who specializes in checking financial ledgers. This etymology explains why the name is pronounced identically to "controller" despite the unique spelling. However, comptroller is often pronounced phonetically in modern...
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