Prevent Fraudulant Activity by Employees

The last thing a business owner wants is to find out their employees are abusing company credit cards. Investigations and criminal charges are no longer that shocking, as companies work to combat employees who take advantage of the availability of a company account. If you are the boss, what can you do to prevent such fraudulent activity? Pay heed to these critical steps:

• Have a clear company policy (on paper) and be sure to communicate it to employees before allowing them access to a company card
• Review each credit card statement carefully and on a timely basis. Make it clear to your employees that you will be diligent in this activity.
• Implement filters with your credit card company to safeguard against certain types of purchases or to place a limit on transaction values (ex. No purchases over $1,000)
• Set deadlines for staff to turn in copies of receipts and be sure employees toe the line

Simple mechanisms in place in advance of a problem and careful bookkeeping should be strong deterrents to employees who consider fraudulently using the company account.