A hired aide who runs an errand often pays for the purchase first, uses a household card, or takes cash from an envelope. Each trip creates a small gap: a receipt not kept, change not returned, a card used once at the wrong store. Any one gap is minor. The problem appears later, when no one can say what was bought, what came back, or who is owed.
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Set the money method before the first errand
Choose one of three methods and write it into the service paper. The household can give the aide a card for approved stores, leave cash in a labeled envelope, or have the aide pay and then be reimbursed. Each method needs a different check. A card produces its own statement. An envelope needs a running sheet with a balance line. Reimbursement needs receipts kept in one place and a fixed settle-up day.
Early signs the trail is breaking
Receipts arrive folded in a pocket with no store name on them. The envelope is short at the next visit, and the sheet has no line that explains the gap. Change comes back in a different form than it left. When the family asks what was bought, the answer is 'the usual.' Reimbursement requests arrive in batches that are hard to match to specific visits. Store trips appear on the sheet at times that do not match the visit log. Any one of these is worth a question. Two or more in the same month is a pattern.
Questions to ask the agency before you sign
Who holds the card or envelope, and who signs the sheet each time it changes hands? Does the aide photograph each receipt on the day of the trip? Is there a rule for a purchase the household did not approve, and who must approve it? When an errand is dropped or changed, who is told, and by what route? How are returns and refunds handled, and where does the money go? How often does an office contact review the sheet, and does the family receive a copy?
A weekly check you can run at home
Keep the receipt bag and the sheet in one labeled place. Once a week, match each receipt to a line on the sheet and to a visit on the visit log. A missing line gets a question the same day, not a conclusion. Ask the aide first, since many gaps are a receipt left in a coat pocket. Keep the sheet and receipts together for the full length of the arrangement, so the record survives a change of aide or a change of agency.
Why a thin market makes this harder
Where few agencies serve an area, a family may not be able to switch quickly after a trust problem. That is a reason to put the money method on paper at the start, not a reason to accept an unclear one. For how limited coverage shows up in planning, see Finding help where the supply is thinnest.