These days, it seems like every time you open the paper, there’s another story about employee theft. Just recently, a client of ours learned that their chief financial officer embezzled nearly $1 million from the company over a three-year span beginning in 2017. Unfortunately, and against our recommendations, the client did not purchase the crime coverage quote offered a few years prior, stating “it could never happen” to him.

If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably read these stories and felt relieved it hasn’t happened to you — yet. But is your business protected? There are some preventative actions you can put in place to help avoid landing in the headlines of next Sunday’s paper, or at least be protected if you do.

Establish Procedures and Protocols

Regardless of who you employ to manage your company’s finances, or play any role in your business, there should be a companywide set of written procedures to be followed. These procedures should allow for clear paper trails and consistency, whether it’s how purchase orders are processed or ensuring that you have signoff on final payroll.

Balance Job Duties

Distributing and dividing up job duties between employees allows for accountability and what we like to call two-step authentication. Similar to some of your protected online accounts, when you involve a “two-touch” process, and divide tasks between employees, there will be less opportunity for an individual employee to take advantage of having too much control in areas such as bookkeeping, finances or inventory.

Protect Your Accounts

With so much of our business management handled digitally, it’s absolutely critical to not only create secure passwords for confidential business accounts and information, but also regularly change them and review who has access to this information.

Purchase Crime Insurance

Crime insurance provides coverage for businesses of all types and can address loss of money, securities and other assets resulting from dishonesty, theft or fraud (including computer fraud). At Fiscus Insurance, we can help advise you on the right coverage for your business. Give us a call to get started.