ABSTRACT
Internal controls can take many different forms, from routine interoffice communications to sales representatives' daily call reports to more sophisticated computerized budget and expense statements. The need for effective internal controls has grown more acute in recent years, and the controls subsequently initiated by pharmaceutical marketing companies in response to this need have become considerably more complex. There are quantitative and qualitative aspects of marketing that offer varying degrees of opportunity and challenge. A manager in a pharmaceutical marketing company can almost always establish direct control over the quantitative aspects of marketing, such as product characteristics and corporate risks or resources. There are literally hundreds of different control mechanisms that can be developed within the flow of product evolution and the framework of a pharmaceutical marketing company. Probably every pharmaceutical marketing company in the country uses some form of call report system to evaluate how their sales representatives spend their time in the field.
