In today's work environment, with so many employees working remotely and businesses continually adapting, fraud is on the rise. Such scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, leading to significant financial losses.
According to the latest report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, organizations lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenue to fraud, amounting to $3.1 billion in losses.1 Many fraudulent activities can be caught by putting effective internal processes and procedures in place. What is one of the best weapons in the fight against fraud? Your staff. But in order to detect and prevent fraud, employees must first know what it looks like and what to do about it.
So let's start with the basics.
Educate Employees on Company Policies and Procedures
First, you must provide employee training so that your staff understands the proper business protocols at your company. It is important that they understand the repercussions of committing fraud – up to and including criminal prosecution.
Train Employees to Identify Sources of Fraud
Equally important, employees should know how to identify possible fraud. With more people working from home than ever before, there are a growing number of ways that fraud can originate. Educate your employees on the various types of fraud as they pertain to your business model, such as:
- New account fraud: setting up accounts based on stolen identity or personal information
- Check/credit card fraud: using fake or unauthorized checks, or using credit cards without authorization and/or transactions outside of company-approved uses
- Phishing: fraudulent attempts via email to get personal or company information that can be used to perpetrate identity theft
- ACH/wire fraud: fraudulent ACH or wire transfers, including Business Email Compromise (BEC), a form of phishing
- Identity theft: using another individual's personal or financial information without his or her consent
- Invoicing or over-invoicing: This is commonly done for products or services that were either never provided or never requested
Fraud can happen across a wide variety of departmental functions, with the most common being accounting, accounts payable, and payroll.
Establish New Processes to Mitigate Future Fraud Cases
Once your employees are able to recognize fraud, consider putting additional processes in place to prevent new cases:
- Cross-train employees to perform basic financial functions. Relying on just one person to manage a financial task or process makes it easier for that person to commit fraud.
- Create a system of checks and balances. Assign multiple employees to keep the books, handle payroll, make deposits, reconcile bank statements, and approve expenditures.
- Train employees to perform basic internal audits. Oversight is an effective fraud deterrent. Require employees to perform regular audits both in and outside of their normal work areas.
- Set up protocol in the event of suspected internal or external fraud. Your procedures for handling external fraud can be fairly straightforward. For example, if a cashier suspects that a customer is attempting to use a stolen credit card, they should immediately notify a member of management before proceeding further.
With internal fraud, however, the actions taken may not be so clear-cut. Many employees will hesitate to accuse others of illegal or unethical behavior. It is, therefore, critical to create a climate of trust by establishing a confidential way for employees to share their concerns, such as with an anonymous reporting system.
Effective training can help protect against fraud both externally and from within your organization. It begins with a thorough education of your employees, strict protocols for handling fraud detection, and consistent follow-up to ensure that procedures are consistently put into practice.
To learn more about smart resources you can use for payables while combating fraud, click here.
