One of the biggest threats to your business doesn't come from the outside, it comes from within with employee fraud.
Small business owners need to be on their guard against all kinds of risks, including fraud. Fraud is something that can ruin a business, especially if this fraud comes from those you trusted. Unfortunately, some small businesses don't discover dishonest employees until it's too late. The financial cost of employee fraud can be significant, and the betrayal of trust leaves you and your business devastated. Here are some tips on how to prevent employee fraud.
- Establish the Code of Conduct
Write and post a code of conduct that clearly spells out the rules of the workplace and the repercussions for not following them. Give the code to everyone you hire upon their acceptance of the job. Require written acknowledgement that they have read, understood, and agreed to comply with it. Demand honesty from your employees, but this must be a two-way street - meaning that you must also be honest with your employees.
- Practice Policies and Procedures
A good way to avoid fraud is by having the payroll prepared authorized by HR, entered by accounting, and then checked by management before the funds are sent to the payroll company.
- Organizational Checks & Balances
Without seeming too paranoid, it's important that you avoid assigning the same person to handle purchasing and vendor payments, or allowing that same person to manage the payable and receivable accounts. Set up an operation in which one person controls what comes in and another that controls what goes out.
Finding the right
business insurance in Calimesa, CA can help to keep your Southern California company covered in case of employee fraud. Serving Beaumont, Banning, Calimesa, Redlands, and surrounding areas,
contact the insurance professionals at Little & Sons Insurance Services for all of your commercial insurance needs.
