What types of employee embezzlement are the most common?
The ways employees embezzle money obviously vary. But generally, the schemes involve larceny, skimming or fraudulent payments. Larceny is easiest to detect because the cash has already been recorded on the books and adequate controls usually exist. Skimming is the embezzlement of cash from an entity prior to its being recorded on the company’s books. Skimming can take the form of sales skimming, in which an employee has the customer pay him/her directly for goods or services. Receivables skimming is when the amount owed is reduced on the books by write-off schemes. The last category is fraudulent disbursements. These can take several forms, including billing schemes, payroll schemes, register disbursement schemes, expense reimbursement schemes and check tampering. Why should owners, CEOs and CFOs worry about employee theft? Because, sooner or later, every company will suffer from employee theft. When it happens, the theft has ramifications that go beyond financial loss. There is also a
