You may not know, but organizations around the world lose approximately 5% of their revenue to employee fraud and occupational abuse each year. And while the scope of employee theft and position abuse cannot be understated, it’s important to act right at the core of this issue. That’s the only way to prevent occupational theft in the future. But how to recognize the fraud in your enterprise? Here are 5 signs that can help you with it!
Claiming items not related to business
Both employees and managers need to be clear about what actually counts as an expense to be paid. A young employee who treats himself to a lavish and expensive 10-course meal is unlikely to be looked upon too kindly when he charges it to the company. To reduce or eliminate this type of expense, your company needs to be very selective about the types of expenses that are allowed. This can also be accomplished by educating employees and managers. Expenses accepted by administrators should always be reasonable.
Employees spending more than their colleagues
The next sign is when your employees with identical job descriptions or in comparable positions have very different expenses.
For example, let's assume that two employees in your company, Jack and Maria, are in the same position. If Maria's expenses for the month are about $2,000 and Jack's expenses are $9,000, you should check Jack's expense report for some time. He may be manipulating the amounts or making bogus claims. As you study spending trends, try to see if they correlate with the return on your investment. Employees with higher expenses should at least be able to justify those demands and link them to earning a higher return.
Tendency to double billing
If you see the tendency of your employees who use underhanded methods to double-bill, such as charging expenses twice for different trips or days, it is definitely expense fraud. Similarly, some employees may make purchases with the company credit card and then present the receipt as if the same purchase was made with cash.
With Jenji, you can set up controls that help you detect duplicate transactions and send automatic alerts. Your finance department no longer has to manually review paper statements or spreadsheets for duplicate transactions.
Unexplained car mileage
If your company offers such expenses like mileage reports, then you should be careful with auditing them, because mileage reports alone are difficult to verify. To reduce the temptation to pad reports, require such concrete trip details as date, location and reason.
Way too generous tipping
Travelers who regularly leave large tips can put the money in their pocket. Let's say an employee submits a check for a $100 dinner that includes a 10% tip, but submits a separate request for a 20% cash tip. Mandatory use of a corporate card can help prevent such excessive charges and make it easier to detect abuse.
Jenji Advisor: solution for your business !
Based on the listed advice, it becomes clear that the best way to detect expense fraud in your enterprise is to use expense management automation software like Jenji, that can detect duplicate transactions and send automatic alerts and easily scan and analyze all of employees' bills.
Do you have any questions regarding expense management solutions? Do not hesitate to contact our team at sales@jenji.io
We will be glad to assist you !