I really have seen some shocking things over the last 20 years. I suppose I ought to write a book!
Until then, these are the worst things I have seen. Be warned – it can happen more easily than you think.
- A book keeper who couldn’t cope with interruptions turned the phones off! The director was out on the road a lot. It was only when his production output ground to a halt that he realised something was wrong – with no incoming orders for the last 3 weeks. She also hadn’t invoiced anything for several weeks nor done any credit control, so a cashflow crisis of epic proportion almost took the company down.
- An in-house accountant who couldn’t handle creditor pressure took to forging the boss’s signature on cheques to pay the suppliers they couldn’t afford to pay yet. There was a huge cashflow crisis and a major breach of the bank facility.
- A trusted book keeper who’d been in the company for over 10 years had been systematically embezzling money ever so slowly and carefully. He ended up facing prosecution for several counts of fraud and theft.
- One director was told by his book keeper that he’d made over £100k net profit after tax. We discovered that he’d not posted the wages for the year end and he actually had a £20k loss. By then the director had committed to buying a building using his profits.
- As they knew the boss didn’t react well to bad news, this team of book keepers hid a series of final demands and court letters they’d received from their landlords. By the time the boss found out, the bailiffs were already in their stores and it was too late to hatch a rescue plan.
- And most common of all? It’s when the book keeper thinks they’re an accountant and prepares accounts that are just wrong as they don’t understand what they are doing. This is a massive problem when the business owner makes major decisions using these accounts.