How Can You Prevent Expense Reimbursement Fraud?
Expense reporting can involve a lot of fraud caused by employees and it is the duty of the employers to keep an eye on each reimbursement to eliminate fraud which is harmful for an organization. However, it is not always an easy task to eliminate fraud but one can take steps to prevent it. Any organization regardless of its size is susceptible to these common occurrences like over-reporting of expenses or claiming reimbursements on personal expenses.
Here are some ways to prevent expense reimbursement fraud:
Submission of original receipts. It is difficult to make changes in or falsify the original receipt. So, always ask your employees to submit the originals. Once the original receipts are submitted match them with the submitted report. If you are using a digital system, train your employees to submit them digitally and save time.
Penalties for offenders. Show your employees that you are serious about preventing expense fraud. Punish any offenders severely to set an example for others.
Usage of Corporate Credit Cards. Making your employees use corporate cards will help you reduce fraud. You can easily track all transactions incurred by your employees.
Periodic audit of reimbursement reports. Periodic audits can bring a lot of positive changes in your organization. To keep a track of the correct reimbursement you can make it a policy to audit your reimbursement reports at least bi-monthly.
Increase convenience for your employees. You must make sure that the submission process of the expense reports is easy and convenient. An extended process will be complex and chances for fraudulent activities will increase.
Reimbursement policy. Your reimbursement policy should clearly mention the employee do’s and don’ts. Moreover the policy should be clearly communicated to your employees to avoid any fraudulent activities.
The best way to implement the above mentioned points is to automate your expense management process using a cloud-based expense report software that is easy to use and will help you with fraud prevention. Click the link to know more!