What can go wrong? Part 3

Do you trust your employees to do the right thing?
Most of them will or you made a hiring mistake.
But 1% to 2% will rob you if you let them.
The one you trust the most may be dishonest.
You are most vulnerable to them and their deceit.
That’s because you don’t watch them as carefully.

A fellow newspaper owner told me this story.

He trusted the wrong person. The felon published one of his papers.
He had know the man for years. He couldn’t believe he would steal.
But he did.
Bob made one mistake.
He had no cross-check system.

Here’s what the man was doing to him.
His bookkeeper wrote weekly bank deposits.
The felon offered to take it to the bank.
He was going for lunch and could drop it off.
It seemed innocent enough.
She appreciated him doing this little chore.
She never suspected him of theft.

The felon had set up an account with that bank.
His account was in a name similar to his employer’s.
He had a supply of blank deposit slips.
He would rewrite the deposit slip.
In doing this, he would leave out one check.
It was a large check from a big advertiser.
He would make out a second deposit slip
This one was for his account.
The big check was deposited into his account.

This went on for almost a year.
Bob could see the dip in monthly revenues.
He called in an auditor to go over the books.
The auditor caught it right away.
The felon had been too greedy.
What if it had it been a smaller account?
The smaller thefts might have been overlooked.
Or at best, would not have set off an alarm.
He might have got away with it. 

Who makes up your bank deposits?
Who takes them to the bank?
Do you match deposit slips with bank statements?
If you don’t, you could be in trouble.
More about this touchy subject next week.

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