Did you know that 1 in 4 employees have stolen their employer? (Source: CalRest.org) The theft can be in various forms:

• Supplies theft: such as taking home a pen or paper from the office
• Data theft: such as selling company’s trade secret or client information
• Cash theft: such as stealing petty cash or keeping the cash received from customers and not recording the sales 
• Billing theft: such as using company money for personal purchases

Of those, billing theft is twice as likely to occur in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) than in larger companies (Source: ACFE).

To avoid the delay in detecting billing theft here is what you can do: 

1. Training employees on fraud awareness

Instead of hiring a fraud detector who may not be able to find and fix all frauds, we could educate our employees. A comprehensive training should include the following topics

• What billing thefts are that may occur at your company 
• How employees can prevent them. 
• What the consequences of committing such billing thefts are. 

2. Implement and reinforce internal control

Create policies and procedures and ensure segregation of duty to make it harder for employees to steal from your company. Here are some common examples:

• The employee who records transactions into the book shall be different from the employee who handles the cash. 
• The employee who writes the cheque shall be different from the employee who signs the cheque. 
• The employee who signs the cheque shall be different from the employee who records the cheque in the book. 
• Have two employees sign a cheque. 
• The bookkeeper shall obtain approvals to override journal entries.

Organizing a training session can be ineffective. If it was held virtually; employees could just alt-tab to browse the web, or leave it in the background while doing their laundry. If it was held in person, it is time-consuming to develop a complete training program and look for real-world case studies. 

On the other hand, it is cumbersome to document these roles and responsibilities in a company's policies and procedures; employees are unlikely going to read through it word by word. There could also be a delay if the employees are located at different offices or even different time zones. 

Want a simpler solution? Use CanCan!

CanCan simplifies the process for you. Under the Reimbursement Module, if an employee wants to apply for reimbursement, they have to add at least one approver from your company. The approvers will then receive a notification from their phone and can choose to approve or reject it. The employee would not be reimbursed without the approvals.

CanCan is a unique fintech for Small & Medium Enterprises. We provide accurate financial data for management to make business decisions. CanCan is most effective for a cross-border business that requires control over financial matters remotely or those who have multiple locations because its database can store a few companies’ financial data in one database. CanCan is unique because we have “people” (consulting accountants) backing it up and we will customize the work processes for quick onboarding and transitioning for you. We understand both international and local accounting and tax regulations that make the digitization process easy. 

Let us help you track your expenses more efficiently. Contact us now: https://en.cancangroup.com/about-us/#contact