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It is important to reconcile your company’s bank accounts every month, just as you reconcile your personal account. This involves matching your credit card transactions with your bookkeeping records to ensure that credit card statements are accurate. Reconciling is a crucial step that helps business owners identify any discrepancies and take necessary action.

Reconciling your credit card statement every month helps ensure that any discrepancies between your credit card statement and bank account are resolved promptly. For example, you may notice a bank deposit with the wrong amount, fraudulent activity, or theft from your card or account. If you see a purchase on your statement that you did not approve, you can inform your bank to investigate the issue.

How to Reconcile Your Credit Card?

When the credit card statements are received, accountants match every statement with the company’s internal system. It includes both inbound credit card payments from customers and outbound transactions to suppliers and service providers.

You can take proper steps to investigate the case if there are any discrepancies. After performing all the research and gathering information, this data is saved for audit purposes.

Is There Software to Help With the Process?

Credit card reconciliation software automates all the required steps in the credit card reconciliation process. It imports data both from ERP or general ledger systems and credit card files or statements. Then, the software compares both files and looks for discrepancies so the accounting team can investigate them.

It makes credit card reconciliation easier as you don’t have to match each transaction manually, and this whole process also speeds up.

Steps to Reconcile Credit Card

1. Get all the transactions of credit cards: The first step is to obtain all the transactions of your company’s various credit card accounts. You can do this by importing credit card transactions with the help of software or manually uploading bank statements into your accounting software. For more accurate results and to save you time, we highly recommend importing these transactions with the help of software instead of manually doing it.
2. Assign expenses to a specific employee or team: First, sort out all your company expenses and then decide which employee or team will be responsible for various fees in your company.
3. Gather and arrange data for various expenses: In this step, you must collect important documents, reports, receipts, and credit card statements. It can be a difficult and time-consuming process. After that, you must arrange data as per your company’s requirements.
4. Draw comparison: Compare the transaction amounts on expense receipts with the outgoing quantity in the corresponding account. Now, this is the time to validate your expenses. Thoroughly check all the costs that took place by your company and ensure they comply with its policies. It will help prevent fraudulent activities or mistakes that could lead to legal woes.
5. Discuss any policy violations with the offending party: If you notice any policy violations in your company, it is crucial to address them immediately. Discuss them with the offending party to know whether it was a mistake or some fraud activity. It rarely happens, but it is essential to highlight the issue to prevent the company from such activities in the future. A simple conversation will help to clear up any misunderstanding and to help the future reconciliation processes.
6. Process credit card transactions in the general ledger: Now that you have sorted out all the expenses and addressed any potential issues found, it is time to add your transactions to your company’s general ledger.

To ensure that the general ledger remains a solid and accurate foundation for your company’s financial system, it is essential to validate and address issues before adding expenses to your ledger.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Running a business in today’s world is challenging, especially after the pandemic. Many companies suffered devastating losses. Many of them had to shut down. It taught many business owners a lesson that not just internal factors but external factors play a vital role in keeping your business up and running. Many businesspeople learned this hard, but the world doesn’t end there. Let’s take this pandemic as a starting point to understand what other factors could influence your cash flow.

Political Instability or Changes

In economics, political instability is the number one factor affecting a region’s businesses. Whether small, medium, or large, any business will suffer political instability or constant change in the political environment. It is one reason companies experience rapid or slow growth rates during election years. Most major corporations of the world try to minimize their business activities during this period and wait for new policies to emerge. Then, these businesses adjust their internal procedures accordingly. Therefore, entrepreneurs should always watch for any political change that could adversely affect their business.

Economic Ups & Downs

While most major corporations of the world tend to enjoy the ups and downs of the economy, most small and medium businesses suffer significantly. If you are in the business of import and export or are selling imported products, then the chances are that the regular increase or decrease in dollar prices might affect your business’s cash flow. If your country’s currency’s exchange rate is down, then your overall business landscape might suffer.

Social Norms & Influences

Society plays a vital role in shaping a country’s demand and supply situation. Fashion, trends, and taboos can hurt your business directly. For instance, during this recent pandemic, face masks became a significant business. Many widely known apparel and sports brands dove into the business of manufacturing face masks simply because their other products weren’t doing well enough. Almost the entire 2020 was in a state of lockdown. It advised people not to do luxury shopping. Therefore, apparel and fashion accessories were not doing well. For many such businesses, the only viable option was switching to producing face masks and gloves.

Technological Advancements

For businesses that deal with technological products and services, staying up to date with the recent trends is a dire need. For instance, Nokia was the most considerable cell phone manufacturer ten years ago, and today, the company is not even in the top five. Why? Simply because they could not keep up with their consumers’ technological demands. While the world was moving towards Android & iOS-based smartphones, Nokia was trying to compel them to switch to Windows smartphones, which backfired, and as a result, the company almost went bankrupt.

Social Media Influence

Social media is probably the most powerful tool in human history to shape our choices and mindsets. People use Social media worldwide to express their pleasure and displeasure with products and services. One wrong move and your business will appear on Facebook or Twitter with a negative review. Regular social media management and reputation management are essential to avoid such instances.

How to Prepare for External Factors to Better Manage Your Cash Flow

Feeling helpless is natural when you cannot control the external factors that can adversely affect your cash flow. However, while you cannot control the facets themselves, you can manage your reaction to them and be better prepared. Maintaining a backup cash flow is crucial in today’s business climate. Of course, this might not be the best solution for every business, but restraining your spending and being flexible with maintaining your cash flow usually works for most companies. Adopting a flexible cash reserve strategy with pre-determined goals can help you have enough cash reserve for rainy days. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

With the evolution of technology, manual processes have lost their stage in business operations, especially finances. These tedious tasks are too time–consuming, leading to an uneven workload and escalating frustration.

To avoid this, you must automate the tiresome manual work that requires too much effort. A well-organized automated financial process reduces risk exposure and grants confidence in the reporting consequences. The resulting efficiency frees up your accountants to focus on more concerned areas, which are the core reason they pursued this profession in the first place. Handling properly can lead to a sound workplace environment and directly influence your company’s prosperity.

Automation of accounting operations is not a new term for those officials who work in the accounting field. However, the dawn of artificial intelligence has raised tons of recent queries, and many CPA officials and accountants worry that the automation procedure might adversely modify their profession altogether.

What is the Role of a CPA?

CPA stands for “Certified personal accountant.” However, this individual is like a toolbox containing every essential tool, from tax preparation to financial statements and internal auditing. The CPA’s primary function is to make a business successful. Where a CPA is an accountant, not every accountant serves as a CPA.

A CPA has earned a certified degree as an accountant. However, those who perform any financial task consider themselves accountants.

Let us evaluate how the availability of accounting automation can be a tremendous advantage for CPAs.

Increased Productivity

The first benefit that accounting automation delivers is saving valuable time. With financial automation, a CPA can eliminate repetitive manual tasks, including spreadsheet work and shift audits. With the merit of time-saving, a CPA can be redeployed to acknowledge more strategic studies, and the workforce can scale to support growth without additional headcount.

Automation Allows Internal Insights

Accounting automation allows a CPA to collect data quickly and continuously. It enables more instant exploration of trends and insights without waiting for the closing period. Additional time for the analysis and quality insights means that a CPA is qualified enough for vigorous decision-making.

With automation, CPAs can quickly generate reports and dashboards adjusted to new income streams, cost centers, and other business alterations. CPAs cannot rely on IT for maintenance to head to fresh initiatives without worrying about unnecessary bottlenecks.

Protection of Data

Manual financial activities require utmost attention and spreadsheets that contain minimal security, lack preventive measures, and increase cyber-attack risks. Accounting automation fully reflects the manual tasks and allows a CPA to concentrate on other valuable areas.

Auditors can easily access confidential information rather than ask permission to review the flash drives or other guarded documents if required.

Improved KPIs

KPI stands for “key performance indicator.” A kind of policy that helps measure performance over a specific period assigns targets to teammates to gauge progress and insights that assist employees across the company in making better decisions.

Undoubtedly, what gets measured often gets in a timely manner. As CPAs consider modernizing their processes, scale forth growth, and provide feasible insights, financial automation platforms acknowledge the underlying procedures and enable tracking.

CPAs can monitor KPIs like unrecorded adjustments, unattended tasks, and late journal entries with a sole point of collaboration for accounting. This determination leads to enhanced decision-making and can also be utilized to drive accountability and alter throughout the accounting organization.

Increases Client Detention

Your business’s clients are not interested in how you do the job well. They are just delighted to be the beneficiaries of it. More specifically, better monetary analysis and increased efficiency lead to cheerful clients.

When CPAs can focus on consulting with clients, they provide competent and helpful advice. Happier clients will also increase the productivity of the company’s services, and CPAs will enjoy embarking on this financial venture. Automation can be a more significant asset to a business than it can ever realize. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

For forever, accounting was considered the most tedious part of a business. Even though accounting is the heart of a company that takes the oxygen and distributes it to the various parts of an organization while maintaining a record of it, it is still unfortunately considered irrelevant to business planning, management, and growth. Surprisingly, that point of view is shifting towards a more progressive approach, thanks to the recent developments in the accounting sector that have entirely revolutionized how businesses connect with their accounting department. Today, an accounting department is more than just responsible for maintaining financial records and doing the math. It is also responsible for participating in the planning and development of a business.

What changed? What brought such a paradigm shift in the accounting sector? Well, you are about to find that out. Here are the top 10 trends of 2023 in the accounting sector that have helped revolutionize the relationship between a business and its accounting department.

Accounting Ecosystem

First and foremost, ecosystems are the fad of 2023. Whether marketing or production, every business sector is moving towards a central system for all their needs. Similarly, the advent of ecosystems in accounting has exponentially transformed this department’s productivity and usefulness. With a centralized ecosystem, businesses now have the luxury of having all their financial information in one place. These ecosystems connect with accounting software, inventory management software, invoicing software, and others. All the financial statements are in one place for the management to analyze, interpret, and understand data easily. It helps businesses to be more accurate with their planning and forecasting.

Artificial Intelligence is Taking the Wheel

In 2023, the most unique and unseen development in the accounting sector was the advent of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is currently newfound and is still developing, yet the fruits it bears are magnificent. With artificial intelligence, accounting departments and management can now focus more on the essential tasks required by human intelligence, such as planning, managing, forecasting, and executing, instead of wasting resources on mundane and useless tasks such as reconciling balance sheets manually, making multiple journal entries of the same transaction, and the like. With AI, the accounting software automatically performs mundane tasks while humans do the more critical tasks.

Superior Data Analytics Tools

From marketing to management to even accounting, data analytics tools have taken the market by storm. With these tools, it has become easier to analyze your business’ performance, plan, and maintain a constant check on the daily happenings. In relation to accounting, data analytics tools have helped streamline how management visualizes, plans, and forecasts its financial performance. Coupled with AI, these tools have greatly helped accounting teams shift their direction instead of doing mundane, repetitive tasks.

Compliance with Workplace Wellness Policies with State Laws

The COVID-19 pandemic opened the eyes of companies and law authorities worldwide to maintain the health and wellness of employees. The pandemic and the recent spike in stress and cardiac issues among employees in the United States have forced authorities to impose laws limiting companies from using their human resources or putting medical facilities as part of their overall package. With these ever-changing policies, an organization’s accounting department needs to be up to date to manage employees’ payroll and medical expenses swiftly. Legal action might bring the entire operation down if the accounts department is not updated with these policies.

Data is More Secure than Ever

Since most of the world is working online due to the pandemic, data security has become companies’ most significant concern. Luckily, in 2023, most accounting software companies switched to cloud–based backups, putting companies at ease that their data is secure on a cloud server and that no one without proper authentication can access it. Also, these servers are highly secure, so there is no stress of the data being hacked into or being prone to virus attacks. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

When joined together, several different avenues form a foundation for a successful business. Marketing, management, sales strategies, and budgeting are all different compartments of the same company. All of these bring bits and pieces to the table to give a finished look to the business. Similarly, accounting is another compartment that deals with the organization of the financial side of your business.

Accounting can be defined as a thorough analysis of all profits and losses, loans, investments, payrolls, and the inflow and outflow of cash. Accounting is one of the most stabilizing departments of a business that assists it in staying afloat as the market fluctuates.

It is no secret that businesses with an effective working system pay close attention to sorting their financial affairs. Accounting is a stepping stone for success, whether the business owner wishes to cater to these themselves or have a whole team to look after their financial affairs.

So, read on to understand why your small business needs accounting.

Remember: your choices today will inevitably impact the success of your business.

Strategize Your Decisions

With your financial situation in front of you, you would see any loopholes in the system. It includes different routes to help you make tiny changes to the business model to attain maximum profit. Likewise, you could shuffle a few things around to save your business from facing a massive loss soon.

Accounting allows you to strategize your decisions according to the needs of the hour. Finances are the wheels of a business, which means that the company starts crumbling when the finances become a mess. If you want a snapshot that would allow you to predict the future of your business, you must take the time out for accounting.

Budgeting

A budget refers to an expenditure put aside to cater to monetary requirements. When you can analyze the company’s financial health for the foreseeable future, one takes extra measures to ensure that all their costs are covered by the funds they have set aside.

Finances and all monetary affairs are sorted as a part of accounting. It provides ample information regarding the costs you may incur in the future. For this purpose, the business owner must consider all requirements and develop a budgeting plan that better suits their business.

Record of Inflow and Outflow

Consider accounting for a track record of all the transactions in a specific period. Transactions include customer payments, loans that must be returned, payrolls, and investments. Keeping a record of these in a systemized manner would save you from any fraud in the future. This record would also aid you in being aware of all the inflow and outflow of cash that would otherwise not be documented.

Performance

You can investigate how your business is performing through the scenario set by the accounting department. Key indicators help the business owner identify their progress or the lack thereof.

It would also assist business owners in comparing their progress to their past results to understand if the business has been performing better or would still require improvements. If appropriate changes happen to the business model, the performance could be improved manifold.

Legal Matters

Businesses are required by the law to be very clear and concise regarding their financial matters to avoid getting into a legal fix. Keeping their accounting department tucked would help business owners prepare for their taxes when it is time. It also ensures accountability for the business owners to remove doubt from the equation altogether.

These are just the five main reasons you need to have a proper accounting system for your business if you already do not. There are many reasons why you should not take accounting as a nuisance. Instead, we should consider it a safety net that could save you from fraud and losses. Staying vigilant and being aware of their business’s financial situation has always given business owners an advantage. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Keeping the finances of a business sorted and in place is the dream of every business owner. Regardless of how big or small the company is, bookkeeping is an area that all business owners must pay keen attention to as they take their business along. Knowing how much profit your business made in a certain period and preparing you for the tax season, bookkeeping has got your back.

At this point, bookkeeping is not even an option anymore. It is a necessity each business should have. To uncover the true potential that your business holds, you must first dive deep into the company’s financial situation. It would help you realize how far you can take your business and assist you in making sound decisions in the future.

However, before we get into the whys of bookkeeping, let us first understand what it is.

Bookkeeping a Financial Record

Your business’s finances, including profits and losses, inflow and outflow of cash, assets, and liabilities, must be appropriately tracked. Recording your company’s financial activity is essential because you may need to refer to your documents to assess how well your business may perform. Bookkeeping is your best friend in keeping track of all the financial records.

Your income, profit, employee payroll, payments, and loans must be neatly accessible and organized through bookkeeping. It would be best to do it before the mess was too hot.

Why is Bookkeeping Important?

As mentioned before, bookkeeping not only makes you aware of the financial health of your business. It also allows you to legally bind your business by staying in sync with your taxes.

Different aspects of bookkeeping go into giving a complete picture. Additional financial statements include balance sheets, cash flow, and income statements. Keeping your bookkeeping prim and proper would essentially cater to your business’s financial affairs. Further analysis and assembly are the accounting department’s job that caters to such aspects.

How does bookkeeping benefit your business?

Read on to understand a few of the many advantages bookkeeping has for your business’s well-being.

Strategic Decisions for the Future

While it organizes and brings a neat outlook to your business, bookkeeping is also a snapshot of your financial health that allows you to strategically maneuver your way around in your future endeavors. It happens because bookkeeping would give you a thorough analysis of the financial status of your business. It would inform you of the profits you could enjoy or the losses you may face if you do not make certain decisions at the right time.

Record of Payments

Bookkeeping is a systemized record of your finances which keeps you in line with your payments. Despite this, it is a luxury that only a few understand its worth.

Being a business owner, it is your moral and legal duty to have a clean record of all the payments you are to receive and all those due. If a record of payments is maintained, you will always have a transparent mode of getting the payroll out for your employees. Other expenses, such as payments to vendors, loans to be returned, and the cut that investors would be receiving from your business, are all made easy to tackle if bookkeeping is a skill you have mastered.

Each business owner must take the time to invest in this skill to save themselves and the stakeholders any inconvenience later.

Preparation for Tax Season

The art of bookkeeping would keep you prepared for audits.

Tax and audits are legally binding aspects of bookkeeping. If your bookkeeping game is on point, you will not have to worry when the tax season rolls around. With your financial situation already cared for, your taxes would be calculated to ensure timely payments. It would save you from getting stuck in a legal hiccup. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Different types of businesses, small, new, large, or old, face fraud, leading the company to debt or severe losses. Customers, suppliers, or employees can commit those scams or frauds. Fraud customers include fake billing, false claims, and receiving counterfeit money. Businesses that run over the internet face fraud from customers the most. Those frauds are when a customer claims an appropriate and proper sale to be unauthorized. It is the reason that some businesses choose only specific payment terms for their sales to prevent fraud. Payment terms include different methods of payment that a company selects from and create the conditions that they will only receive payments through those methods. A few other ways a business can prevent fraud are by creating strict laws against crimes and fraud in the industry, by keeping a check on their employees and keeping them under supervision, and by handling the complex accounts by themselves or under the owner’s watch by conducting audits.

What are Payment Terms?

Businesses provide their buyers with invoices, and the types of invoices can depend on the method or multiple methods of payments your company has chosen to accept. Different payment methods include receiving payments in cash, checks, debit cards or credit cards, online transfers or mobile payments, and electronic bank transfers. Every business should have a bank account because you can make many different decisions if you have a business bank account. The most common payment terms are payment in advance, receiving all payments at the end of the month, cash on delivery, conducting only cash sales and no credit sales, money in advance, cash before shipment, prepayments, half payment in advance, and installments. It is essential for startup businesses to set up clear and concise payment terms from the very beginning to create a culture of your business. If you plan to receive payments through bank cards and mobile banking, you must hook your business up with merchants to avail of merchant services. Get your business’s point of sales device to make the other payment methods possible. Payment terms are important because you can track your receipts and include them in your cash flow statements.

How to Use Invoice Payment Terms to Protect Your Business

A business applies or includes payment terms to its financial systems to improve cash flows. Payment terms ensure you get your payments as early as possible and work in a way that will not offend or make it inconvenient for your customers. Make sure to use the payment terms which will help you achieve your goals and aims. Ensure you also include your payment options and the payment time in your invoices. It will prevent confusion in the future, and you can get paid on time. You can invest in software like Smart Invoices, which allows customers to pay online whenever they want through pay-enabled smart invoices. Customers can pay using credit cards, debit cards, and automated clearing house (ACH) bank transfers with Smart Invoices.

Some challenges you might face while setting up the payment terms include payment security, which means you can never be too sure if your chosen payment platform is trustworthy. On top of that, you must ensure you are providing your customers with good quality and good services. Managing and tracking the payments and invoices can also get hard. If you are running your business on a larger scale, then managing payments can be more hectic as there will be different channels and different types of buyers, and keeping a record of each type can become hard. Even after putting up many payment terms and regulations to prevent fraud, you may still have a few unpaid invoices. Unpaid invoices are more common for small businesses as compared to large companies.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Each year, fraud costs the average firm 5% of its income, just the fraud discovered and disclosed.

Because your organization’s money funnels to pay outside vendors, you work in an increasingly vulnerable area to fraud as an Accounts Payable expert. So, what can you do to avoid AP fraud from happening in the first place?

Stop sending out checks. Even though checks are generally a diminishing form of payment, they still account for most B2B payment transactions. According to the Association for Financial Professionals, checks were the top target for fraud attacks at their companies in 82 percent of cases. Check payments are vulnerable to fraud from the moment they are issued for the following reasons:

• Dishonest employees may issue checks without authorization.
• Checks can be easily altered or counterfeited by fraudsters.
• For scammers to use, checks contain bank routing and account details in plain sight.

These are widespread problems associated with accounts payable. Check fraud directly impacts your bottom line, and it is a time-consuming procedure to manage since you will have to make stop payments, reissue checks, close and reopen accounts, order new checks, and so on.

It would be best if you implemented positive pay. If you must continue to issue checks, the easiest method to combat check fraud is to work with your bank to develop a positive pay scheme. You send a check issuing file to your bank with affirmative pay for each check run. Before honoring a check, your bank compares it to your check-issuing information. The bank tells you and gives you the option to authorize or deny the check payment if the check is not on your check issue file or if the check information (payment amount, check number, etc.) does not match the check issue file.

Vendor verification is essential for check clearance. If a vendor calls you over the phone to update their information, such as their address or bank account number, make sure you confirm the changes in writing to ensure the validity of the change.

Conduct random audits. Review your AP department’s rules and procedures regularly, giving special attention to fraud detection and prevention effectiveness. Consult your AP staff and peers to discover probable flaws in your fraud protection policies and procedures.

It would help if you separated employee responsibilities. Although most employees are trustworthy, you must make efforts to prevent internal fraud. For example, issuing payments and reconciling accounts should be done by a different person. Make sure to keep the vendor setup and payment processes distinct.

In most cases, fraud occurs because spotting flaws and patterns can be difficult due to running a firm’s overwhelming day-to-day intricacies. When employees process hundreds of payments monthly, they do not always have time to search for patterns or double-check changes.

By reporting unusual changes, AP automation technologies can help firms enhance the AP process and prevent fraud. They are not distracted by minor details or prone to human blunders. Software like Stampli automates the AP process and centralizes communications, making fraud detection considerably easier.

Organizations can limit their fraud by practices like having the same person authorize invoices and payments when approvals are done on paper or over email, avoiding mistakes even more difficult.

A bank change request commonly comes in an unexpected email asking for the payment to be wired to another account, a common symptom of external fraud. The accounting department can begin using a bank change form to avoid this. It implies that if your AP department receives a call or an email requesting changes to banking information, it can only be executed once the designated individual has completed the form. Another method is to ask questions to verify the request’s legitimacy: What was the total of your most recent invoice? When was the last time you made a payment?

Another way to protect yourself from payment fraud is to digitize and automate your accounts payable process. An automated AP workflow system will be able to recognize duplicate payments considerably quicker and faster and highlight any problems or suspicious activities in real time by removing human error from the equation. Accounting personnel can then investigate the situation to see if it was a mistake or a possible fraud attempt. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Account payable frauds are surprisingly increasing in the world of trade and business. A measurable percentage of the amount and revenue comes from the business accounts without even being listed in the business owner’s knowledge. These scams are becoming too common as the world approaches digitalization. Undeniably, the accounts payable are an open treasure box that welcomes scammers to fill their pockets and accounts to the fullest. There are many reasons and ways to avoid such fraud.

There is no doubt that scammers have grown wiser and more digitalized than before. They cleanly slip through their motives, trying not to leave a trace behind. But as a businessperson, you must try your best to fight such scamming activities, nibbling your profit. Take some severe steps before this account payable theft causes you some severe potential financial loss. You can work on the following steps to enjoy all that you earn:

1. Surprise audits would be a great help

To avoid account payable frauds and scams, get crafty about your accounts and their details. Sound interesting? Well, to save your beneficial interest, you must go interesting. Apart from regular and monthly audits, go for timely surprise audits. It will save you from being robbed through the funnel of account payables. Go for installing organizational applications that are quick enough to analyze and capture every trace of accounts payable fraud.

2. Avoid accepting cheques

Clearing payments through cheques is one of the most common payment exchange methods around the line of bank and accounting. But apart from this, it is also the easiest way to light up the fire of account payable frauds and scams. According to research, more than 80% of scams happen through cheque payments. They are the most accessible source for cash fraud activities, so ensure a backup plan is partnered with your associated bank. It will save you from substantial potential loss.

3. Be questionable about each expense

Initiating a business can be difficult, but establishing it and making it profit-generating is even more challenging. Keeping a close eye on each transaction inside your company can protect you from critical financial losses. Maintaining positive cash flow is not easy, but being lenient every time will do you no good. To guard your business against being drowned, get strict about the expenses and profits you witness while running a mature or start-up business.

4. Make payment approval strict

A widespread mistake that people in business make is not assigning the same person to accept and approve the payments entering your business. It does not seem to be suspicious, but as a matter of fact, it can increase the chances of account payable fraud without even being noticed. Ensure that the person approving the invoices is not equally dealing with the payments. Hire two different employees to manage the respective chores professionally and honestly. Periodic audits can lend you a helping hand in eliminating the risks of account payable fraud. 

5. Automated payment – a digital savior

Yet again, technology has proven to befriend business owners and oppose scammers. Shifting all your transactional activities towards a digital mode is as secure as a fingerprint to unlock confidential information. Doing this can quickly reduce and even eliminate unnecessary human errors around the circle. Automated payment is way more beneficial than just mitigating account payable frauds. It helps you detect every miscalculation, error, and repeated data you might skip even after several audits.

Final Words

Account payable fraud can happen in any company, but large-scale industries are at more significant risk. These frauds can happen to anyone associated with your business’s profits and loss statement. It can be your employees, vendors, and sometimes even managers. You must keep your instincts active after every transaction made within your business premises. These few steps will help you minimize the account payable frauds going under your nose. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

It indicates that gradually putting money away and capitalizing it in the share market would not work. We will go through how we should begin budgeting for the most excellent buy you will likely ever make in these few stages and in the most efficient way possible.

1. Knowing how much you will need

We must add the down payment to the sum you can afford to cover for a property to get the total finance charges. You should anticipate putting down a 20% down payment on a property in today’s restrictive financing market. No, that isn’t a must; it’s simply the bare minimum required to receive the most incredible discounts. But you’ll likely pay an upper-interest amount if you have credit problems. The minimum you need to save depends on how much mortgage you can take out. So first, check what you can borrow by making an appointment. You can then determine how much you still need to save to purchase a home that suits your situation.

2. Know your time frame

The second step is to figure out how much time you have. If you want to buy a house in five years, you’ll need to save aside nine thousand every year (forty-five thousand separated by six years). The narrower your term, the bigger your yearly savings target.

Only when you know how much you spend on what you know what you can save on. So, make a handy overview of your large and small expenses and look at them critically. Keep doing this every week while you’re saving. It is how you keep a finger on the pulse.

3. Have a way to hold your down payments

A general guideline: because the cash you’re cutting for a deposit for a house on a property has a specified objective and must be met within a specific timeframe, you shouldn’t put it in risky alternative investments (stocks, real estate investment trusts, etc.)

4. Make a place in your income

You’ll need to create some spare money to ensure that you can meet your savings target. Take full use of it! That implies you may need to increase your income, reduce your expenses, or do both.

What do you really need right now? Limiting your expenses to essentials means you realize how much money you can save. So, live frugally for the period you need to keep the desired amount. This way, you can save up to 50% of your monthly income. That’s a nice touch. Maybe you will like it and keep going longer!

5. A savings plan needs to be flexible

It is critical to include adaptability in your budgeting strategy, regardless of the size of your down payment. Additional financial pressures will be on your funds while saving, like major auto maintenance, car renewal, and unexpected medical bills. None of these things will miraculously disappear because you want to save money for a down payment on a property. It would be best if you were prepared when they occur.

 Also, if you have recurring costs, such as replacing your automobile, you’ll need to budget for these simultaneously.

Conclusion

Owning a house may be a lengthy process that drains a significant portion of your finances, but consider it all part of the process of becoming a landowner. You will have all those expenditures once you buy your own house, but you’ll also have significant home-related expenses. Even though you are not in the mood to buy a home for several years, you better start saving for the future. Consider this a practice run to prepare your budget and mind for the additional costs of homeowners.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.