According to Forbes, payroll fraud occurs at 27 percent of all businesses, with small businesses seeing more than twice as much fraudulent activity as their larger counterparts. Even more alarming, the average instance of payroll fraud lasts 36 months, meaning it can syphon off revenues for years at a time.
Unfortunately, ABA therapy clinics aren’t exempt from the damages of payroll fraud. If it isn’t already happening at your clinic, chances are it will crop up at some point. There is good news, though. With the right procedures in place, you can easily minimize the chances of payroll fraud becoming a problem at your clinic.
Implement the best practices in the list below to ensure that payroll fraud doesn’t become a problem for you.
- Aggregate payroll data to identify patterns like former employees showing on the current payroll, duplicate entries, abnormal payment amounts, unusual hours worked, etc.
- Keep an eye out for checks that are not cashed
- Occasionally print physical checks and request that personnel pick them up in person and with a valid photo ID
- Investigate payment records without deductions
- For those companies that capture signatures to comply with Regional Center requirements, keep an ongoing schedule of random calls to parents to verify service performed
- Create a procedure for auditing the full payroll cycle one process at the time – timesheet submission the first month, data entry the second month, and so on
Performing these steps can help you identify vulnerabilities in your particular payroll procedures so you can take action to ensure they aren’t exploited. Doing so can help prevent your ABA therapy clinic from becoming part of the 27 percent of U.S. business that fall victim of payroll fraud.
Autism Clinic Software can help improve your payroll practices.Request a free demo to find out how.