Business Advice

Re:Business Advice

Hi

Generally the only accounting services controlled by legislation are audit and the sale financial services/products (investments, mortgages, insurance etc). Outside of this it is pretty open, but you would of course need to abide by AAT regulations.

Any full member can join the MIP scheme, but it does require particular CPD and insurance requirements.

Neil

Re:Business Advice

Good morning all,

I have a question and I thought I'd stick it here instead of starting a new thread.

My question is, what information, if any, do I need to give to a bank to set up a business account?

I wouldnt want a loan from them nor an overdraft facility, but would want a chequebook with my name and business name on it i.e. ukGiants trading as blah blah blah.

Thank you for any replies given.

Re:Business Advice

Hi Jan,

Where I work the checks made against the supplier payment run are very very casual and I could easily set up bogus accounts on the software and on-line banking. I believe I could make payments to myself using a bogus company name but with monies actually going into my account.

Thats why I asked the question about setting up a bank account, just to see how difficult it would be/what info would be needed etc, because at my end (work) it would be a doddle.

I suppose I wouldnt even need to setup a new account, I could just put my bank details in under a bogus name, my boss would be non the wiser, until Audit time.

Obviously this is just theory and would never be put to the test.

Re:Business Advice

The comments made by UKgiants about fictitious suppliers is an issue which clients presuppose their year-end accountants have a duty to spot - but we don't, unless it is an audit assignment. Some companies have such weak controls they ask for a fraud.

Very recently I've gained an insight as to how even the most "trustworthy" bookkeeper/financial controller can manipulate their position for financial gain. The situation was that the bookkeeper took the weekly takings from a cash based business on the Monday, banked some of it and kept the rest. Over the year the fraud has cost the company about £6,000.00. The sales and cash control account had a huge difference which led to the fraud being spotted. The problem here was no segregation of duties.

When questioned, the bookkeeper became extremely nervous and her reaction basically confirmed my suspicions.

The sad part is she was a nice woman who realised there was a weakness in controls (which had been previously told to the directors by us) but she took advantage of it.

She's been sacked and the police are involved. 13 years of service ends with a P45 and a criminal record.

EDIT

p.s. UKgiants - this was just to highlight how a weakness can lead to a fraud - I'm not suggesting you're going to do anything sinister!

Re:Business Advice

Good job we're honest, eh?

I could go one better ukGiants - like you I could set up a bogus supplier etc but as I also do the payroll it would be easy to give myself a payrise. My boss gets a copy of the payroll report, but I could easily run another.

Which prison were you thinking of checking into? Perhaps we could meet up and compare notes

Re:Business Advice

Jan wrote:

as I also do the payroll it would be easy to give myself a payrise. My boss gets a copy of the payroll report, but I could easily run another

I know this thread is going slightly off track and I apologise (not to mention I'm getting a nosebleed from writing on such a heady Forum!), but the person I replaced gave himself an unauthorised pay rise of a mighty 17% a couple of years ago. It was only discovered when I joined the company as an accounts novice (which I still am in many ways!) and began updating the personnel records. He'd reduced his working hours so must have thought it ony fair to up his rate to £18.02 per hour to compensate! Our external payroll accountants never even contacted the directors to confrim the rise - a loophole which has now been closed.

Small companies are far too trustworthy and it's so easy for the unscrupulous amongst us to spot these holes, exploit them and then cover them up without the directors never really knowing a thing.

As for the trust thing, I seem to remember making some form of declaration to the AAT in my Foundation year, stating that I'd never been bankrupt or had a finance related criminal record. From that I guess that if you had been convicted of some criminality or financial wrong-doing, you wouldn't be allowed to join or get this far?

Robert