Lesson 3.5
Personal Accounts, Diverted Payments & Side Deals
Estimated time: 8 minutes
This area creates serious risk for many businesses.
Scenario — “Send It to My Account”
A customer wants to pay ₦85,000.
The company’s normal payment channel is unavailable.
An employee says:
“Just transfer it to my personal account. I’ll give the company the money later.”
Is that acceptable?
Only if the business has explicitly authorized that process.
Otherwise, personal accounts can create:
* missing money * poor records * disputes * fraud risk * tax/accounting problems * customer confusion
Diverting Customers
An employee meets customers through work.
Later the employee tells them:
“Next time don’t come through the company. Contact me directly and I will do it cheaper.”
Whether outside work is allowed depends on the employer’s policies and agreements.
But secretly taking business opportunities that came through your role, using company resources or misrepresenting the arrangement can create a serious conflict of interest.
Unauthorized Discounts
A friend comes in.
The employee secretly gives a 30% discount.
The employee says:
“It’s my friend. I was just helping.”
But whose money funded that help?
If the discount was not theirs to authorize, they gave away something belonging to the business.
Unauthorized Refunds
The same principle applies.
An employee should not approve money leaving the business merely because:
- they feel sorry for someone
- the customer is their friend
- the customer is influential
- they fear an argument
More Workplace Examples
WhatsApp Payment Details
An employee forwards the business’s invoice to a customer on WhatsApp but replaces the official account number with their own.
Changing approved payment instructions without authorization diverts money, even if the rest of the invoice is genuine.
BETTER RESPONSE
Restaurant — Cash Recorded Smaller
A server collects ₦18,000 in cash and records the sale as ₦12,000.
The record is false, and the difference was taken from the business.
BETTER RESPONSE
Customer payments should go through the business’s approved payment channels unless an authorized exception has been explicitly established.
Remember
Generosity is only generosity when you are giving what belongs to you.