Embezzlement is scary business, so what can you do to protect your company against future or past cases you may be involved in? Take a look at these guidelines to get started.
Prevention
You should know your employees and keep track of what they do as much as possible. Before hiring, perform a background check on each person. If your business has grown enough that you have more than a handful of employees, make sure your managers and supervisors are honest and trustworthy. Train this team to recognize and report suspicious activity, after all, it’s better to check something out that turns out to be just fine rather than catching a problem too late.
Write out a process for your company to keep a strict paper trail. Most finances are handled via computer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be reviewing bills and transactions. It may be a good idea to keep hard copies of important reports and routinely verify your electronic records for any funny business. You should also have security measures in place on your computers and billing software that records activity and flags anything out of the ordinary.
It’s also smart to have some checks and balances in place.If you only have one person in accounting, provide a backup (either someone financially savvy already working in the business or yourself) that can verify your daily, monthly, and yearly transactions. Don’t give too many people access to the checkbook, however, or you might find fingers pointed because no one was watching closely.
Detection
If you do detect actual theft, make sure you have your bases covered. You’ll need to go into lockdown mode with any credit cards or bank access the individual might have. You’ll also want to gather your evidence and make sure it’s all well documented before attempting to confront them.
Before interviewing them about missing funds, determine how to involve law enforcement. You may feel inclined to report it and turn the individual over to the authorities if they’ve been skimming large amounts or stealing funds for a prolonged period of time, in which case you can have security on hand to prevent the individual from becoming violent or getting away.
If the case is serious enough and you want to press charges, get in contact with professionals that specialize in dealing with embezzlement. Whether it’s a corporate or dental embezzlement investigation, there are people who have the experience to help you get through this tough situation.
Don’t forget to contact your insurance company if you have employee theft insurance so you can be compensated for the loss, especially if the missing funds cannot be recovered. You’ll also want to report the incident to the credit bureau.
Resolution
After exposing the illegal act, it’s time to take a look at your current policies and procedures for any loopholes that might exist and address them so no one else has the chance to take advantage of them. This may require rewriting policies or writing new policies.
You might even decide to reevaluate your employees in positions close to the criminal’s and their duties, then revamp their job descriptions and provide more training on how to identify theft and what it’s consequences are. With constant vigilance and consistent efforts to improve the flow of your organization, you’ll be able to better protect yourself, your business, and your honest employees from the same thing happening again.
No Comments