My Paper Pusher, LLC

How to Prevent the Fraud Triangle

To prevent financial fraud, you must remove one of the three elements of the Fraud Triangle!

The easiest element for management to remove is OPPORTUNITY by creating effective internal controls – such as

1. Do a background check for those in financial roles
2. Separate duties – for example, the person who opens the mail should not be the same person who records payments and deposits checks and reconciles the accounts
3. Reconcile the bank account regularly
4. Bank statements should be delivered to management unopened
5. Require regular vacation, job rotation, or surprise work review
6. Create procedures to handle cash, signature stamps, and checks
7. Review your vendor listing to make sure there are no unusual or unknown vendors
8. Use unique logins and passwords on computers and for online banking access

It is the responsibility of management to limit opportunities for fraud. Start today by implementing these internal controls!

7 Skills of Extraordinarily Likable People by Jeff Haden

“Some people are naturally confident and self assured.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of them — and possibly neither are you. Small talk doesn’t come easily to us, and those first five minutes are tough because we’re a little shy and a little insecure.

Yet we want to make a good impression. We want people to genuinely like us… but we want them to like the real us.

Here are six ways to be who you are — and to be extraordinarily likable:

1. Lose the power pose.

I know: Your parents taught you to stand tall, square your shoulders, stride purposefully forward, drop your voice a couple of registers, and shake hands with a firm grip.

It’s great to display nonverbal self-confidence, but go too far and it seems like you’re trying to establish your importance. That makes the “meeting” seem like it’s more about you than it is the other person — and no one likes that.

No matter how big a deal you are, you pale in comparison to someone like, oh, Nelson Mandela. So take a cue from him. Watch how he and Bill Clinton (no slouch at this either) greet each other.