#fraud-prevention
Fraud Prevention
Proactive strategies and controls to prevent financial fraud in your business
Private School Bookkeeping: Deferred Tuition and Fund Accounting Explained
Private school tuition is an exchange transaction under ASC 606, not a donation, so tuition collected before the school year starts must be booked as deferred revenue and recognized ratably over 10 or 12 months, while donor-restricted gifts follow separate ASC 958 rules.
Financial Scams Targeting Small Businesses: The Warning Signs Before the Wire Goes Out
The FBI's IC3 logged $3.05 billion in business email compromise losses in 2025, and only 25% of small businesses have a whistleblower reporting mechanism versus 85% of large companies — here's how vendor impersonation, payroll diversion, and check fraud unfold, and the controls that stop them before a wire goes out.
Bill.com vs. Melio vs. Ramp: Which AP Tool Fits Your Business?
A side-by-side comparison of Bill.com, Melio, and Ramp for accounts-payable automation — pricing, ERP integrations, AI invoice coding, and which tool fits businesses by invoice volume and approval complexity.
Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) Bookkeeping: Trip Logs, Broker Reimbursement, and False Claims Act Risk
NEMT providers face a documented audit risk unlike most small businesses — a 2022 federal audit found 72% of sampled New York claims non-compliant, and billing a no-show as a completed trip can trigger False Claims Act penalties starting at roughly $14,000 per claim plus treble damages.
Check Washing Is Back: How to Protect Your Small Business's Accounts Payable From Mail Theft Fraud
Check fraud losses hit roughly $21 billion in 2023 and mail-receptacle theft rose 139% between FY2019 and FY2023. This guide covers the accounts-payable controls that actually stop check washing — positive pay, weekly reconciliation inside the UCC 4-406 window, gel ink, and separating check-writing from reconciliation.
Organized Retail Crime and Theft-Aggregation Laws: A Small Retailer's Guide
More than 30 states now let prosecutors combine multiple small thefts into one felony charge under aggregation laws, making dated incident logs and police reports essential for both prosecution and the IRC §165 business theft-loss tax deduction.
Parking Garage Bookkeeping: Reconciling Cash, Card, and Validation Revenue
How parking lot and garage operators reconcile entry/exit counts, cash drops, and card settlements to catch revenue leakage, plus correct accounting for monthly permits and validations.
Scrap Metal Recycling Center Bookkeeping: Cash Purchases, Seller IDs, and Form 8300 Compliance
Forty-five states require scrap yards to keep seller-ID records, cash caps run as low as $30 (Washington), and IRS Form 8300 is due within 15 days on cash over $10,000. A practical guide to building a purchase ledger that survives police, state regulator, and IRS scrutiny.
Small Business Grant Scams: How to Spot a Fake Offer Before You Pay
No legitimate grant ever requires an upfront fee — the FTC reports nearly 30% of 2026 scam victims were first contacted on social media with losses topping $2.1 billion, and fake grant offers follow a predictable four-step script from unsolicited contact to escalating "release fees."
Visa and Mastercard Just Tightened Chargeback Monitoring Again: What the 2026 VAMP Threshold Cut Means for Merchants
Visa lowered its VAMP excessive-merchant threshold from 2.2% to 1.5% on April 1, 2026, with fines of $8 per flagged transaction, and Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Program still triggers at 100+ monthly chargebacks — here's how the ratio math catches small merchants off guard and how to bring it back under the line.
PCI DSS 4.0 Compliance Guide for Small Merchants in 2026
PCI DSS 4.0's transition period ended March 31, 2025, so every merchant assessment from 2026 onward now enforces mandatory payment-page script monitoring, MFA for all cardholder-data access, and authenticated internal vulnerability scans — noncompliance risks $5,000-$100,000 monthly fines from acquiring banks plus an average $173,692 added breach cost per IBM's research.
Positive Pay: The Bank Service That Stops Check Fraud Before It Clears
Positive Pay is a business bank service that matches every check against your issued-check list and flags mismatches the same day, a control most eligible small business accounts still don't use even though checks remain the most-targeted form of payments fraud.