Small business owners in West Burlington – here’s how to protect your business from fraud

by Ryan Ruffcorn

West Burlington is lucky to have so many successful and dependable businesses. There is no doubt that without trustworthy or hardworking employees, a business in West Burlington could simply not be successful. Because a business is so dependent on employees doing their job, it’s important to put practices in place that help verify the quality of work they are doing, as well as to verify trust.

Unfortunately, it isn’t uncommon that business owners experience dishonesty or fraud from their employees. More often than not, employee dishonesty is discovered until it’s too late and the financial cost of fraud has become significant. After all, the average financial loss of a business due to fraud in America is around $145,000. That’s is a significant amount and could potentially put an end to a business, depending on their overall financial stability.

Here are four tips to protect your business in West Burlington from fraud:

Create an ethical culture in your office and always encourage employees to speak out if they see something suspicious or wrong. Make it easy for them to come to you with open-door office hours or weekly one-on-one meetings.
Use background checks. Just like a realtor background checks potential tenants, use a background check to show you how stable and responsible your potential employee may be. Financial decisions often reflect life decisions.
You know how much your employee makes. If they suddenly begin living an extravagant lifestyle or come in with clothing or accessories that you know are out of their budget, take a second to have a conversation and ask them about it in a respectful way.
Always divide up financial and accounting jobs. This creates a system of checks and balances so all financial information isn’t kept within one employee. In addition, have meetings to review financial documents and your business financial status.

Have you ever experienced fraud from an employee? What other things do you do to ensure your business and employees are honest and trustworthy?