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Mitigating fraud risks in businesses is often much simpler and easier than many businesses think it can be says part-time CFO. Many business owners arenít even aware of all of the ways their business is at risk for fraud, or they think that they canít afford to pay for the additional costs of minimizing fraudulent activities in their business. However, itís often easier and not as expensive as business owners assume. Since cash flow problems are an extremely common reason that small businesses struggle, business owners who do everything they can to avoid fraud can rest easy knowing that they are protecting their cash flow from this risk.
Some of the ways that business owners can minimize fraud risk in their business is completely free says part-time CFO. The first way that a business owner can avoid risk of fraud is by being careful with checks. Many business owners assume that their financial institution is checking every single check and signature that is deposited into the bank however that is very rarely the case. Because of this, this is owners need to take it upon themselves to handle their checks with extreme care. They need to treat each check with the same amount of care as they treat money. If business owners are very protective of the checks new business, chances are much lower that they will be used for fraudulent purposes.
Another freely that business owners can immediately minimize fraud risk in their business is to eliminate the petty cash fund. There is no reason why businesses should continue to have cash on hand in their business says part time CFO. Not only is this a fraud risk, it is also a audit risk that doesnít need to exist in the business. A great solution is for a business owner to get a company debit card. They can ask their bank to lock that card so that online purchases canít be made with it, as well as putting on a daily transactional limit to the card so that employees only have access to a certain amount of money each day. Even if fraudulent charge happens on the bank card, businesses are only out a few hundred dollars and set of thousands.
If the business owner finds it absolutely necessary to have company credit cards, they should avoid having a communal company credit card where several people have the credentials to that card. The reason for this says part-time CFO is because if fraudulent charge happens on a card where there is shared credentials, there is no way of knowing who created that charge. If business owners issue one credit card to every employee that needs one, and have them be in charge of the cards credentials, can at least know that the fraudulent charge occurs, which employee is at fault.
These are just some of the ways that a business owner can decrease the risk of fraud in their business for absolutely no money.
Fraud protection in a business doesnít have to be complicated or expensive says part-time CFO. But businesses without taking protection to guard against fraud in their business, often are paying a much higher price years later. There are several things that businesses can do to protect themselves against fraudulent activity in their business. Business owners need to decide what price theyíd rather pay, slightly higher price now to ensure that nothing fraudulent happens in their business, or having several thousand dollars stolen from them in the future.
Of the first things that business owners can do to ensure that their guard against fraudulent activity in the business is to have a regular meeting with their accounting team. Itís useful to have checking. On a regular basis where the accounting team can ask business owners questions and the business owner can ask them questions. This can ensure that conversations are being hand and if there are any questions or doubts, we are dealt with regularly. The meeting business to belong part-time CFO recommends 15 minutes once a month in order to ensure that a business owner is effectively communicating but their financial team.
Business owners can minimize fraud risk in their business is creating a read-only access for their bank account any time one of their employees needs to help with financial information, if they are using a read-only account, they can see all the activity thatís happening in the business account, but not actually access or disburse the funds. This can be a huge help business owners who canít afford to pay additional staff so that thereís two staff members on financial tasks, but they still need some financial work done in their business.
Business owners can also eliminate to the petty cash fund in their business. Itís not necessary to carry cash in businesses anymore especially with covalent using bank cards and electronic payment is. Business owners need to make purchases, they can issue a company debit card to their staff instead of keeping lose money on hand.
Whenever possible, says part time CFO a business should have more than one person working on financial files at a time. There are several ways that employees can defraud a company with their their working on accounts payable, payroll, or accounting. Because of those increased risks, business owners can ensure that they are protecting themselves by having two people working on those files. Not all employees are dishonest, but it can help keep those dishonest employees from stealing money. Another option for business owners says part-time CFO is by outsourcing tasks whenever possible. By shopping around for great rates, business owners can often save themselves more money by outsourcing the task rather than having to employees work on it at the same time and house. By sending tasks out of office, can completely eliminate the fraud risk that business. And can often be well worth the money spent.
