How can you prevent employee fraud in your business?
Here are four suggestions:
- Screen job applicants. Check work references, criminal records, and professional recommendations. By instituting a screening policy, you may save a lot of cash and grief. Just remember to treat every applicant equally, and get written permission for background checks.
- Reconcile bank accounts. A standard and simple internal control is to separate employees who pay bills and make deposits from those who reconcile accounts. As an owner, making time to personally review deposits and disbursements on a regular basis can deter fraudulent billing or cash skimming schemes.
- Secure inventory and supplies. This can be as simple as regularly changing combinations on warehouse doors or locking supply cabinets. Laptop computers are especially vulnerable to theft, so make a priority of securing them.
- Get a cash control review. Having a trained set of eyes inspect your books, records, and operations can pay for itself many times over. Skilled auditors can ferret out scams and help your business develop stronger controls against criminals, both inside and out.
If you’d like assistance with this or any of your business concerns, give us a call.
