“I Never Thought This Would Happen to Me – I can trust my bookkeeper”
I got an email from a contractor who had taken my Building Profit and Wealth class. He said that he was having problems with his bookkeeper and asked whether I would help him.
Of course.
We set a time to talk.
Background: On the second day of the Building Profit and Wealth class I go over the procedures you need to put in place to keep the honest people honest.
When we talked I discovered that this contractor hired a bookkeeper when the company was in trouble financially. She came in and cleaned up the books. The owner could tell where the company was financially so he could make the decisions necessary to get the company profitable again.
The bookkeeper was instrumental in getting clean financials. She befriended the owner’s wife. He stopped looking at financial statements every month because he trusted her.
The embezzler had become the trusted bookkeeper.
About a year ago, the company went to direct deposit for their payroll. This was the opportunity the embezzler was looking for.
She would take a direct deposit check and then she would write one to herself, cash the check, and delete the check from QuickBooks. Since she was responsible for the reconciliations (and they were NEVER checked to make sure they were right), you couldn’t see the deleted check.
The owner finally paid attention when he couldn’t understand why he was starting to have cash flow problems.
When he called me with this situation his comment was, “I sat in your class thinking that this would never happen to me…and it did.”
She embezzled about $60,000 before she was caught. At a 10% net profit, this owner has to generate $600,000 in revenue to pay for this mistake. Ouch!
My question to you: What is it going to take for you to pay attention?
Do you think “This will never happen to me?”
If you do, and if you don’t pay attention to the financial side of your company, the likelihood is that someone will take money or materials from you at some point. Do you want this hurtful, expensive lesson?
Did you check your bank accounts on line today? This is the first step in protecting your hard earned cash.
Get the tools you need to grow profitably, build wealth, and live the life of your dreams.
Ruth King is well known as “The Profitability Master.” She is passionate about helping small business owners become profitable and stay profitable. For over 40 years she has coached, trained, and helped contractors and others achieve the business growth and goals they wanted to achieve.
Contact Ruth by emailing ruthking@hvacchannel.tv.
Visit www.financiallyfit.business to get your business financially fit in less than 10 minutes a month!
