BOOKKEEPING FRAUD ON THE RISE

It's a catchy punch line - some Bookkeepers would shake their head in disgust, some would go "oh my god, I have done things like that!", some would go "oh does that mean I could be caught!" 

The Australian Financial Review published the story of Bookkeeping Fraud on the Rise on 14 July 2009 and their sub-heading was "Cash-strapped businesses are finding discrepancies as they check their books, writes Mark Fenton-Jones."

It is distressing, yet whatever the reaction, fraud is for ever prevalant in everything - it is irrelevant if it is shop assistants, accountants, bookkeepers, professional criminals, white collar crime is always there. Directors can be criminals, defrauding their companies, HIH, OneTel - does this ring any bells with anyone.

Regardless of the above Uniting Bookkeepers as a support for Bookkeepers (in general) need to reaffirm that transparency is the foremost objective of a contract professional bookkeeper.  Corporate Governance, Compliance, Internal Controls are the key to being transparent.

Let's have a quick health-check of our clients and the internal control, compliance, transparency components of our work:

• do you have your own password to your clients bank account?
• if you use the client's password have you documented the permission anywhere?
• are all transactions authorised in writing - do you get the client to authorise creditors payments, wages, and transfers?
• if a client said draw a cheque to go from a trust account - are you aware of the documentation needed before you put pen to cheque?
• do you document in your own diary events, issues etc that you feel might be suspect?

The list can go on and on, Uniting Bookkeepers cannot stress how important transparency is, internal control is mandatory as is compliance.

The article ending with a quote "Small businesses should make sure their bookkeeper is registered".  Uniting Bookkeepers totally agree that the registration of Bookkeepers is essential, yet being a BAS Service Provider cannot guarantee that fraud will not take place.  The only thing that can minimise this is controls, checks and compliance.