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The Southbourne Tax Group on 3 Ways AP Automation Can Prevent Fraud

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The Southbourne Tax Group on 3 Ways AP Automation Can Prevent Fraud

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Of all the oft-touted benefits associated with accounts payable automation, they typically overshadow their ability to address another concern, one in which AP is particularly vulnerable: internal fraud.

Certainly, many of today’s automated AP solutions help avoid late payment penalties, capture early payment discounts, reduce the number of days that payables are outstanding, and minimize the cost of invoice processing as they should do. But still, most business owners consider themselves immune to the risk of internal fraud and feel that it is the kind of thing that only happens to other companies.

That said, the stats surrounding the frequency and severity of internal fraud may surprise you:

A lack of internal controls makes up 29.3 percent of fraud cases, making it the leading area of organizational weakness.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the median amount of time required detecting billing, expense reimbursement, and check-tampering fraud is a whopping 24 months.

Check fraud comprised 77 percent of payment fraud in 2014.

The accounting department is the largest function engaging in fraud, accounting for 16.6 percent of all internal fraud cases.

As an accounting professional, you are inclined to look at financial data and transactions very carefully. Plus, you have the experience-driven intuition that can automatically raise red flags when something seems “off.” However, for most small business owners, the day-to-day needs of keeping and growing their company will naturally get the most attention, giving dishonest employees the opening they need to take advantage of their employer.

As a trusted advisor, finding ways to safeguard your clients should always be on your mind. So while there’s no way to eliminate the risk of fraud entirely, leveraging technology and data can help minimize this risk considerably.

So how can AP automation help? This article explores three buckets of functionality that can help keep your clients safe.

1. Audit Trails

Among the benefits of a digital ecosystem is the amount of data at your fingertips at any given moment. What used to be an exercise in filing cabinets, sticky notes, and the capacity of your memory has become a mere function of cloud computing. Today, the simple click of a button can provide a detailed and time-stamped view of the entire lifecycle of an invoice or vendor record.

Did an employee make multiple changes to vendor record detail within a short amount of time? Was bank account data for a supplier modified? Was an employee not typically associated with a given vendor unusually active with their invoices?

If suspicion arises, data points, such as general ledger, approved amount, contact information, or banking details, can provide insight in such a way that you know who executed a given action, and precisely when. While not meant to imply wrongdoing or suspicion necessarily, you will no doubt be able to recognize activities that deviate from the norm and are worth a second look.

More than likely it was a legitimate modification, a breakdown in communication, or an honest mistake. To quote Christine Warner in a fantastic article entitled 10 Ways to Identify Accounts Payable Fraud, “trust but verify.”

So how can a busy business owner or accounting manager keep tabs on the pulse of their payables quickly and easily? While fraudsters are inherently resourceful and crafty, some telltale signs may be helpful to raise an eyebrow or pique your interest in a deeper dive:

Invoices are missing vital details, such as description and quantity.

Vendor info contains PO boxes or public emails, such as Yahoo! or Google.

Dramatic change to typical vendor pricing.

Approved amounts just underneath approval limits.

Rounded invoice values ($25.00, $50.00, etc.).

Increases in invoice volume for a given vendor.

After-hours logins and modifications to invoice and vendor records.

While audit trails cannot necessarily prevent fraudulent activity, they can provide an enormous amount of data should you need it to alert a client, or to put a stop to fraudulent activity in progress.

2. Access Control

You wouldn’t allow just anyone to walk into your office and thumb through your documents. You may even limit the access some people within the accounting department itself have to certain documentation.

With a cloud solution, you can take the concept of access even further, not just allowing team members access to data, but also limiting their functional capabilities. By assigning specific roles to your team, you can ensure that certain functions are restricted to those you choose, preventing anyone else from having access to perform specific tasks.

Maybe you would like to have specific employees approve bills, with others having read-only access. Perhaps you only want certain staff to be able to edit payee records, or you would like to limit the ability for clients to reject invoices or edit details.

With this standard feature of AP platforms, access is controlled digitally, ensuring that members of your team have access tailored to their role within your team, even down to a very granular level.

By doing so, you can systematically segregate tasks to ensure compliance and accuracy throughout the payables cycle. After all, the hallmark of a well-run payables process is the consistent use of checks and balances.

By separating roles for data, approvals, and payments, it reduces the chances for funds to be rerouted or otherwise misappropriated. Among the more common role-based segregations are:

Preventing approvers from modifying invoice data.

Disallowing approvers from paying invoices.

Limiting access for vendor record editing.

Restricting the ability to modify user permissions.

3. Business Rules and Workflow

An efficient workflow is only as good as your ability to enforce it consistently. Paper-based workflows are notorious for ad hoc approvals and scrambling to make it in time for the biweekly check run.

Along the way, discrepancies can easily slip through the cracks, as can fraudulent payments. Moreover, within the madness of being a busy accountant, reviewing each and every invoice in detail is sometimes just not possible. With an automated solution, business rules enforce these standards automatically and regularly.

Whether it be multiple required approvers, mandatory preapproval review processes, or payee bank account validation, automated business rules prevent the ability to bypass steps required by your business. This also removes discrepancies on noncompliance with internal routing and processing policies – it is enforced digitally and can be modified as needed by assigned company administrators only.

Some of the more common uses of systems and workflows offered by AP automation platforms include:

Multistep approvals.

Individual approval thresholds.

Exception handling workflow.

Automatic invoice routing.

Digital PO matching.

The Final Word

Fraud is very real and very costly, but shouldn’t consume your thoughts. With due diligence, regular evaluation of your processes, and a keen eye for things that seem out of place, you can minimize these risks substantially.

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The Southbourne Tax Group on 3 Ways AP Automation Can Prevent Fraud

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The SouthBourne Tax Group Business - BBB giver tips om arkivering skatter, undgå svig

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The SouthBourne Tax Group Business - BBB giver tips om arkivering skatter, undgå svig

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Mens alle erhvervsaktive borgere skulle have haft deres W-2 form leveret af nu, er det vigtigt for skatteyderne at tage tid og være forsigtig, når du vælger en skat tilberedningsvirksomheden du kan stole på.

Det er vigtigt at undgå fejl, der kunne resultere i ekstra gebyrer eller endda skat identitetstyveri.

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I 2016 modtaget BBB næsten 3.000 klager mod skat forberedelse virksomheder landsdækkende.

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BBB tilbyder følgende råd, når du søger en skat tilberedningsvirksomheden:

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• Må ikke falde for løftet om en stor refusion. Være på vagt over for enhver skat forberedelse service lovende større tilbagebetalinger end konkurrenterne. Undgå enhver skat tilberedningsvirksomheden, der baserer deres gebyr på en procentdel af restitutionen.

• Tænk om tilgængelighed. Mange skat forberedelse services kun oprettet shop for månederne op til 15 April deadline. I tilfælde af IRS finder fejl, eller i tilfælde af en revision, Sørg for, at du er i stand til at kontakte skat tilberedningsvirksomheden til enhver tid af året.

• Læs hele aftalen grundigt. Læse skat forberedelse servicekontrakter nøje at sikre du forstår spørgsmål som hvor meget det vil koste for tjenesten, hvor omkostningerne vil blive påvirket, hvis forberedelse er mere kompliceret og tidskrævende end forventet og om skat tilberedningsvirksomheden vil repræsentere dig i tilfælde af en revision.

• Spørge rundt. Spørg familien, venner eller kollegaer for anbefalinger om arkivering din afgifter, uanset om det er gennem en CPA, skat forberedelse business eller online skattevæsenet, der tillader dig at indsende din egen skat. Find en BBB akkrediteret skat forberedelse forretning nær dig, gå til bbb.org.

Skat sæson er også en travl tid for identitetstyveri. Skat identitetstyveri opstår, når nogen bruger dit CPR-nummer til at få en tilbagebetaling af skat, eller et job.

Ifølge Federal Trade Commission (FTC), skat identitetstyve få dine personlige oplysninger i en række forskellige måder, herunder: gå gennem din papirkurven eller postkassen; gennem e-mails beder om oplysninger, som synes at komme fra IRS; medarbejdere på hospitaler, plejehjem, banker og andre virksomheder stjæler data; og falske eller uærlige skat regnskabsudarbejdere misbruge fortrolige oplysninger eller passerer det videre til identitetstyve.

For at mindske chancerne for at blive offer for skat identitetstyveri, har FTC følgende råd, uanset om du vælger at indsende din tilbagevenden selv eller bruge en skat tilberedningsvirksomheden:

• Indsend selvangivelsen tidligt. Og gøre det, før identitetstyve har en chance for at stjæle dine oplysninger. Sørg også for, din adresse er opdateret så dine W-2 ikke går tabt i mail eller ender op i de forkerte hænder.

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• Tjek din kredit rapport. For at sikre din identitet ikke har været stjålet eller kompromitteret, gå til annualcreditreport.com at få din gratis kredit rapport.

Adam Price er regional direktør for Better Business Bureau i større Killeen-området. Han kan kontaktes på aprice@centraltx.bbb.org.

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