Not afraid of paper checks? You should be.

The economic downturn is exposing crooks that had managed to escape scrutiny until now. Belt-tightening has caused businesses to examine process and procedures, trying to find ways to cut costs, and they're finding phantom employees, receipt skimming, fake vendors - all bobbing to the surface like bodies in a horror movie lake.

Here's an interesting article by CPA Timothy Dayles about how to address risk in businesses. The article, which first appeared in "Smart Business Cleveland" in 2007, lists ways that businesses can assess risk.

Checks are vulnerable to fraud at every stage, from the box of blanks in your supply closet to your distributed payroll checks, all the way to the canceled checks you may still get back in the mail. Thieves can make new checks with your existing information, wash a payroll check and fill new amounts and payees on it, even sell your banking information. You can cut paycheck risk completely with a Directo paycard program.

Directo provides secure online enrollment, eliminates the need to reconcile, makes payroll corrections easier and does away with the risk of lost checks and fraud. It's FREE to the employer, and employees appreciate that Directo never checks credit, and that the robust paycard program lets them access their account information online or by telephone, gives them 24/7 access to their money via ATMs, retail point of sale, and electronic billpay, and all the benefits of direct deposit without ever having to step into a bank.

Give your company a big dose of security. Call 770.810.6502 - Jim McCarthy will answer your paycard questions, and your Directo paycard program can be online in just days.

No obligation. No cost. No risk. Today, those are sweet words indeed.