Situation
Being the owner and president of a small business doesn’t leave much time to get into the nitty gritty details of billing and accounting processes.
Gulzar Singh, President of Pan-Oceanic Engineering Co., Inc., needed to keep his focus on growing his business, so he decided to engage Wipfli as a second pair of eyes to ensure finance-related processes were strong and had appropriate checks and balances in place.
Wipfli’s fraud prevention checkup was an ideal way to assess the strength of those processes, identify gaps and gain recommendations for improvements.
Strategy
As part of the fraud prevention checkup, the Wipfli team interviewed Pan-Oceanic staff to better understand their roles, day-to-day processes, policies and procedures, and internal controls. Wipfli also received reports from the billing and accounting system and performed a thorough risk assessment.
Altogether, the fraud prevention checkup allowed the Wipfli team to assess the strength of Pan-Oceanic’s controls and identify any areas that a fraudster could take advantage of either through an oversight in the design of the internal controls or an error in execution.
Benefits
After the checkup was complete, Wipfli delivered a report that included the team’s conclusions and recommendations. Pan-Oceanic found these recommendations to be particularly valuable.
The company has since upgraded its two-point positive pay system with its bank to a four-point system to further mitigate the risk of fraud. It plans to update the employee handbook to include an ethics policy that employees will be required to sign on an annual basis, and to provide employees with ethics training. The company also plans to consistently review its list of vendors and remove those that are inactive as a way to further reduce the risk of fraud.
Singh was impressed with the quality of the recommendations and has gained peace of mind that his business is mitigating its risk and taking proactive actions to prevent fraud.
Client profile
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Pan-Oceanic Engineering Co., Inc., is a general contractor with expertise in the installation of storm and sanitary sewer systems, general excavation/removals, aggregate bases, and concrete/asphalt pavements.
