Virtual Bookkeeping Services

A former accounting firm employee was arrested Friday after allegedly using a client’s account information to pay their own bills.

Tabatha Sue Benningfield, address unknown, worked for Kenneth Haldeman’s accounting and bookkeeping services firm, which did accounting work for the victim, police said.

Using the victim’s account information, Benningfield and a co-defendant paid more than $10,000 of their own bills without authorization from the victim from February 2007 to December 2007, police said. The co-defendant was not named in the police complaints.

Payments were made via phone and internet to multiple vendors, including Harley-Davidson Financial Services, US Cellular and Alliant Energy, police said.

Benningfield, 23, faces the charges of identity theft and first-degree theft. She remained in the Johnson County Jail on Saturday on a $15,000 cash-only bond.
Posted by Press-Citizen.com  December 5, 2009

Unless you are managing your financial books on your own, you can be victim to theft.  It is vital that whomever is responsible for managing your finances have insurance to protect you from theft. Outsourcing your bookkeeping functions can be extremely beneficial to the growth of a company. However, precautions should be taken.  Your bookkeeper should provide some form of insurance that would protect you if a mishap occurs.  At Foster Results, every bookkeeping client is insured up to $1 million dollars worth of loss.  Each client recieves a Certificate of Insurance naming them as the insured.  Foster Results firmly believes in protecting every company's assets.