Receivables skimming — lapping

An employee takes one customer's payment and covers the shortage by applying a later payment from a second customer to the first customer's account, then a third customer's payment to the second account, and so on. The scheme requires access to both incoming payments and the receivables posting.

Planned. Analysis for this scheme is in development.

Starter pack: Revenue and receivables review

Red flags

In the data

• Payer name or bank account on the receipt differs from the customer account credited
• Accounts age past due and then catch up in a repeating pattern
• Growing unapplied cash or suspense balances
• Increasing lag between receipt date and posting date
• Deposit detail does not agree with individual remittances posted

Behavioral

• Employee never takes vacation and insists on opening the mail
• Customer complaints about statements are routed to the same employee
• Employee resists confirmation of customer balances

Internal controls

• Same person opens mail, prepares deposits, and posts receipts
• Customer statements not mailed or reviewed independently
• No lockbox or remote deposit capture with independent posting
• Deposit detail not reconciled to receipts applied