Segregation of duties is one of my favorite subjects and an area where I have done extensive work during my parking career, so I was thrilled when IPI asked me to deliver a CAPP point course on this subject at the conference May 17th in Nashville. After interviewing several parking industry leaders from around the country, I wanted to share two themes that have emerged to help ensure you have your bases covered when it comes to segregation of duties.
Technology is great, but it can also create gaps. Technology has brought many benefits to the parking industry including operating efficiencies, elimination of loopholes and reduction in cash handling. Make sure you get the most out of advanced equipment solutions by revising segregation of duties charts to recognize new responsibilities it creates. An example shared with me by a city parking director that illustrates this well involves a facility’s migration from cashiers in lanes to pay on foot and pay in lane machines. When she made this change, no one was assigned responsibility for reconciling credit card revenues per device to amounts received from the processor. In this case, a machine that was offline went unnoticed for 9 months while credit card charges accumulated without ever clearing for one of the pay in lane machines.
Segregation of duties goes beyond your own personnel. It is quite common for a process to extend beyond one department or entity. One operator found this out the hard way when the employee responsible for depositing money into the city’s bank account began shorting deposits. In this case, the city wasn’t performing monthly bank account reconciliations, and the issue went undetected for over a year. Review your processes to ensure you have checks and balances in place for the things you are responsible for, and don’t assume the next department or entity is picking up where you leave off.
If you’re establishing segregation of duties within your department or company, we’re here to help! To learn more, contact The Marlyn Group at letsconnect@marlyngroupllc.com.
