As a practice owner, you should add controlling employee theft to your list of items to be concerned about. Over the last two decades, I have received numerous calls from physician and dentist clients informing me that they had to terminate a trusted employee who is often thought of as extended family, for theft or embezzlement. A couple quick tips are:
- Eliminate cash whenever possible and if a cash drawer does still exist, don’t treat as a fund for lunch or parking.
- Look at receipts not just charges. At common vendors such as office supply stores, supercenters, and warehouse clubs, gift cards are sold. The practice owner may assume the charge was for copy paper but without seeing the receipt, it could have been a gift card to Ulta or Apple.
- Utilize ETF payments whenever possible eliminating the need for checks. This reduces the likelihood for loss, errors, or manipulation of the physical document.
- On performance reviews, list compensation so you can easily check against payroll to detect an employee who handles payroll giving themselves a raise.