Although bookkeepers are the ones who record what happens to your business’s cash, they aren’t the only ones who control where that cash goes. Controlling your company’s money is important; a business’s cash can be a pretty tempting siren for employees who aren’t accountable to the right checks and balances. Follow these suggestions to limit any one person’s access to your company’s money:
Separate cash handlers. Be sure that the person who accepts cash isn’t also recording the transaction.
Separate authorization responsibilities. Be sure that the person who authorizes a payment isn’t also signing the check or dispersing the cash.
Separate the duties of your bookkeeping staff to ensure a good system of checks and balances. Don’t put too much trust in one person — unless it’s yourself.
Separate operational responsibility (actual day-to-day transactions) from record-keeping responsibility (entering transactions in the books).
