On February 20, 2020 we joined Central Community School System, LA who hosted a Best Practices Sessions. The day was filled with great conversations about audits preparation, fraud prevention, state & district reporting, in-school staff training, and cash handling.
We wanted to share our top three takeaways from the day.
- Technical Fraud – Districts and Bookkeepers should meet with district IT staff regularly to discuss scamming emails, as well as steps to take when receiving a potential scam email. Districts should ensure the proper firewall precautions are taken so that bookkeepers do not receive fraudulent emails requesting payments.
- Fraudulent Checks – Bookkeepers should continue to keep an eye on all their accounts to ensure no fraudulent checks have been deposited. One district threw away old checks and later learned someone stole them out of the dumpster. Luckily, the district learned of false checks being written and were able to deny these transactions.
- Reduce Cash in Schools – Cash touches the hands of multiple people, from parents, students to teachers and bookkeepers. The more people you have handling cash, the more chance there is of cash going missing. Districts need to make sure there are proper procedures in place and have the appropriate technology to track payments.
