Cash Larceny
Definition
Taking cash that has already been recorded in the accounting system. The record exists, so the theft creates a provable discrepancy between the book entry and the physical cash, making detection more straightforward than skimming.
Related terms
- Skimming
- An off-book cash theft: revenue is stolen before it enters the accounting system, so no entry is ever made. Skimming is harder...
- Deposit Verification
- Audit procedure that traces cash receipts from the point of collection through to the bank deposit, confirming that the amounts recorded match...
- Fraudulent Disbursement
- A scheme in which the perpetrator manipulates the organisation's outbound payment process to divert money to themselves or an accomplice. The main...
- Ghost Employee
- A fictitious or terminated worker whose record remains active on the payroll master file. Wages are disbursed under that record and diverted...
- Lapping
- A scheme to conceal the theft of cash from customer receipts by applying a later customer's payment to the earlier customer's account....
- Off-Book Scheme
- Any fraud in which transactions are never entered into the accounting records. Off-book schemes are the hardest to detect by accounting review...
- Register Reconciliation
- The process of comparing point-of-sale transaction records against physical cash drawer counts for the same period. Persistent shortages on specific shifts, registers,...
- Segregation of Duties
- The principle that the authorisation, custody, and recording of any transaction should be performed by different people. Its absence is the single...
- Surprise Cash Count
- An unannounced physical count of cash on hand at a specific location, compared against the accounting balance at the same moment. Persistently...
Explained in these topics
- Asset Misappropriation and SkimmingTaking cash that has already been recorded in the accounting system. The record exists, so the theft creates a provable discrepancy between the book entry and...
- Cash Theft and Skimming SchemesTheft of cash after it has been recorded in the accounting system. The books show the receipt; the bank deposit is short. The gap appears as a reconciling diff...