The Framework recognizes that while internal control provides reasonable assurance of achieving the entity's objectives, limitations do exist. Internal control cannot prevent bad judgment or decisions, or external events that can cause an organization to fail to achieve its operational goals. In other words, even an effective system of internal control can experience a failure. Limitations may result from the:

These limitations preclude the board and management from having absolute assurance of the achievement of the entity's objectives—that is, internal control provides reasonable but not absolute assurance. Notwithstanding these inherent limitations, management should be aware of them when selecting, developing, and deploying controls that minimize, to the extent practical, these limitations.