31st October 2017

The strange case of disappearing timesheet fraud and increased efficiency in the recruitment back office!

Timesheets

Payroll and timesheets a part of the UK’s fraud mountain

Across the UK, fraud is costing us dear with £144 billion going missing and leading to a total bill reckoned to be up to £193 billion. Most of this is related to procurement scams of one kind or another. However, £12 billion of this was attributed to payroll fraud in all its guises.
Unsavoury as it may be, many agencies are likely to have encountered payroll fraud directly as a result of timesheet tampering. Fraud on a timesheet may take the shape of a falsified entry, where information is invented. Alternatively, it may be the alteration of an existing entry, such as changing one digit to another.
Alterations to timesheets that extend the hours worked, or falsified entries that ‘document’ shifts worked that were not, are serious types of fraud as they are straight-forward attempts to deceive for financial gain.
However, even here there are nuances. Someone fiddling 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there pales by comparison to someone attempting to seek fraudulent remuneration for entire ‘ghost shifts’ that they did not work. Attempts to falsify sign-off by authorised signatories are also very serious cases.
Depending on the specific details that have been incorrectly entered or altered, falsification of timesheet information may equate to dishonesty and theft and be grounds for prosecution. For some it may be no more than a disciplinary offence, but for others it may be gross misconduct and grounds for immediate dismissal.
Factors such as whether it is a one-off event, or whether a specific worker or contractor is a rogue, or whether it is a widespread embedded behaviour across an agency or a specific contract all influence how recruitment agency management handle such cases.

Fighting back against timesheet fraud

The advent of electronic timesheet systems has radically reduced the opportunities for alteration and falsification. Essentially, doing away with paper means that the potential for timesheet fraud is disappearing.
However, even with online timesheet systems accessed through computers and mobile devices, there can be no room for complacency. Determined computer-savvy fraudsters are always going to be looking for opportunities and loopholes to exploit.
To combat this threat there needs to be a policy-led best practice approach to security for users of electronic timesheet systems:

Eliminate timesheet fraud and transform back office efficiency with ETZ

Eliminating paper from the timesheet process not only removes the ability to alter and falsify timesheet entries, it also addresses gross inefficiencies in timesheet processing and the potential for human errors such as loss of paper timesheets or transcription errors resulting from miss-keying or misreading handwriting.
ETZ recruitment back office integration and solutions reduce the costs of timesheet processing by up to 85%. When used with policy-led best practice for electronic timesheet systems, ETZ significantly reduces the potential for timesheet fraud. If you want to know more about how we help transform efficiency and all but eliminate the potential for timesheet fraud through falsification and alteration, just get in touch.



Download your free guide

7 smart ideas to grow your recruitment agency.

Download Now
Download your free guide

Latest Posts

Recruitment, RecTech

Efficient recruitment back office operations: A guide to advanced automation with ETZEfficient recruitment back office operations: A guide to advanced automation with ETZ

15th September 2023

Boosting operational efficiency in the recruitment back office The back office of a recruitment agency plays a pivotal role in...

Read more
AI, Recruitment

Thought leadership? The most progressive recruiters will aspire to ‘thought readership’!Thought leadership? The most progressive recruiters will aspire to ‘thought readership’!

1st September 2023

Does ‘thought readership’ have a place in recruitment? In recruitment, in the battle for audience engagement, just like any other...

Read more
RecTech

Unleashing the power of RecTech: The recruitment agency investment that keeps on givingUnleashing the power of RecTech: The recruitment agency investment that keeps on giving

28th August 2023

Mastering RecTech determines your level of success The operating environment is dynamic and fast-moving. The opposition is aggressive and hungry...

Read more

See what ETZ could do for your agency with an online demo

Save hassle, time and money with our powerful software.

Book a Demo

Sign Up To Our Newsletter