Keep control of cheque signing

Early in my career, I launched a directory in a remote market from where I lived. I allowed the person who was managing that market to write cheques. I trusted the person and didn’t pay close attention until it was too late.

I was tipped off that something was amiss and when I looked closer, I found the person had been writing themselves cheques far in excess of what we had agreed that they would be paid. As a result, the business owed money when it should not have. This could have been avoided by writing cheques and sending them via courier to my manager—or even having a second arms-length person signing the cheques. There is no downside to keeping control of the cheque-writing.