Archive for September, 2010

Credit Card Fraud – Strategies to Reduce It to Protect Your Business and Customers Against Loss

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

The possibility of credit card fraud constantly haunts credit card companies and merchants that accept card payments. The problem is graver for e-commerce website owners and mail order companies where the card is not physically present and there is no way of ensuring whether you are dealing with the lawful card holder. Retail store businesses, have machines to swipe cards and the customer is available during the transaction. Though this does not eliminate the risk of getting conned, it does lower it to some extent.

Credit and debit card fraud is the No.1 fear of Americans already weighed down by the global financial crisis. (Source: Unisys Security Index: United States, March 2009). According to the Javelin Strategy & Research, “Identity Fraud Survey Report,” February 2010, the number of U.S. identity theft victims rose 12% in 2009 and the annual fraud amount equaled $48 billion.

In some cases, bank issuing the card provides some insurance for a merchant’s loss if the business has precisely complied with all of the bank’s credit card processing specifications. Even then, the business is not clear of loss as it will still see some charge backs. Credit card processing services employ fraud security measures to prevent fraud but you must also do your own bit to minimize the risk of credit card fraud. Here are some tips:

Appraise orders for complete facts

Do not accept orders if all the mandatory values in the form are not filled by the buyer. An address authentication via the credit card processing service’s AVS (Address Verification System) service is helpful as most fraudulent transactions don’t pass this check.

Validate billing and shipping address

Be cautious of orders with dissimilar delivery and billing addresses. When a regular client does this as a norm, it isn’t worrying. In other cases, call the customer and confirm. It doesn’t cialis online buy take much time and saves you from potential hassles.

Confirm addresses with websites

You can check the addresses and phone numbers of clients using web phone directory websites such as whitepages.com, anywho.com, and others.

Be cautious of free email ids

Most credit or debit card fraudsters use free of cost email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. Though these email accounts are also popular with authentic clients,.

Record every detail of the sale

Store the IP address of clients when they are exploring your e-commerce website or placing orders. Also record the date and time of the visit, and phone conversation details if any. Add the caller ID and any other data to the order information. If you do get caught in a credit card fraud situation, the collected information will be very helpful.

Be wary of new customers placing orders of high value

If a new client places a large first order, exercise caution. If they also ask for overnight delivery services, you should call the client and make sure she actually placed the order.

Get the CVV number when placing the order

Your order form should ask buyers to enter the Card Verification Value (CVV) number that is printed on the back of credit cards. Your billing application should save this number and pass it to the credit card processor for validation. This reduces the possibility of fraud as criminals typically only have the credit card number to go with.

Caution and adherence to process do not eliminate credit card fraud but are definitely successful in reducing it. Follow the above mentioned recommendations to protect your business and your clients. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.

Accounting being the Language of Business

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Generally, accounting is perceived as a difficult subject. Its intricacy is cialis online buy often dreaded by many. Even a number of business owners decline to understand it and often outsource such function to accounting and bookkeeping services companies.

But then Accounting plays a critical role in every business and that business owners should have an understanding of its importance though the function is being outsourced. Accounting, being the language of business, brings great advantages to business owners if they have at least a background about the said subject or area.

What numerous individuals usually do not know is that Accounting is much easier than Algebra or Statistics. It only entails the basic mathematical operations called MDAS or multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. It only involves the basic mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. Accounting, being the language of business, is simply the process of compounding English and Arithmetic. The following are some pointers about Accounting that you will probably find useful for your business:

1. Accounting is a tool for decision making. Profitability of business is reflected in financial statements which are produced from records obtained in bookkeeping.

2. Accounting involves the systematic recognition, measurement, reporting and interpretation of date that are related to financial activities of a business. Appropriate recordings of transactions are the best basis to determine the business progress.

3. Accounting records everything about the business and comes up with a report that can be interpreted to determine the stability and operation of the business.

4. Just like any language, there are principles in Accounting that are definite and there that are not definite or a matter of opinion. Accounting changes to meet the needs of business.

5. In Accounting, there are also rules to follow like rules on debit and credit and in preparing the format of Income Statements and Balance Sheets.

6. There are words used in Accounting that do not take the exact meaning as being used in common language. One has to learn to think of words in their accounting rather than their popular meaning.

7. Bookkeeping is the time consuming side of accounting which involves daily process of recording transactions related to the business.

Accounting is the indispensable system to better manage the business. The business owner has to deal with different situations daily concerning business operation. He is often challenged to make the best decisions for the business and it is important that he knows whether the business is earning profits or incurring losses. He will be able to analyze the reports and other data if he understands the process of accounting.

There are notable advantages if a business owner has at least the basic knowledge in Accounting and at the same time, have the function outsourced to a reputable bookkeeping company like bookkeeping New York and accounting company like bookkeeping NY or bookkeeping Manhattan.  This is a perfect combination that will maneuver the business to achieve its targets and goals in a short period of time.