The Ultimate Guide to Accounts Payable Fraud

Online payment fraud losses are expected to exceed $343 billion between 2023-2027, with 56% of US companies having experienced fraud in the past 24 months.

Fraud in accounts payable departments poses a significant risk to businesses, one that often results in substantial financial losses and operational disruption. In this guide to detecting and preventing Accounts Payable fraud schemes, we’ll look deeper into the various forms of Accounts Payable (AP) fraud and examine their implications.

We’ll also explore effective strategies for detecting ap fraud, and best practices for detecting and preventing these fraudulent activities. This includes how organizations can leverage automation in their AP automation to protect against fraud, ensuring greater financial integrity and operational efficiency.

Failure to detect and prevent payable fraud can result in significant financial losses and damage to a company’s reputation in addition to severe legal repercussions. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), fraud typically goes unnoticed for 14 months, resulting in average losses of $8,300 per month.

Accounts payable fraud, commonly known as AP fraud, refers to any deceptive financial activity that specifically targets a company’s accounts payable department, responsible for managing payments to suppliers, other vendors, and more.

AP fraud can take many forms, including internal actions by employees, external fraud such as actions by vendors, or even a combination of both. It also refers to fraud by third parties such as cybercriminals.

Internal Accounts Payable Fraud

Internal accounts payable fraud refers to fraudulent activities or billing schemes committed within the organization. Examples of internal accounts payable fraud schemes include:

• Billing Schemes: Employees create shell companies and submit false invoices for goods and services that never existed.
• Check Tampering: Employees steal and forge checks from the employee, keeping the money for personal gain.
• Expense Reimbursement Schemes: Employees submit fraudulent expense reports, claiming expenses that never occurred such as inflated meal costs, nonexistent supplies, or even overordering supplies and taking them.

External Accounts Payable Fraud

External accounts payable fraud refers to fraudulent activities committed from outside the organization’s accounts payable system, including:

• Vendor Overcharge: Vendors may intentionally overcharge or bill twice for the same item or service.
• Business email compromise (BEC) or Email account compromise (EAC): scammers use deceptive emails to impersonate employees, vendors, or partners. They may request things like money transfers, unauthorized payments, or sensitive information.

1. Relying on Trust

While trust in employees is crucial, excessive reliance on it can create opportunities for internal fraud. Things like financial difficulties, the allure of easy money, or even unrealistic performance targets may drive unethical or fraudulent behavior. This is especially true when an opportunity arises and the perceived risk of detection is low. Implementing internal fraud controls can effectively mitigate this risk.

2. Weak Internal Controls

Weak internal controls, inadequate segregation of duties, and poor oversight all increase the chance to commit financial fraud. Implementing clear roles and responsibilities combined with regular reviews and internal audits all makes it harder for an individual to commit and conceal fraudulent activities.

3. Complex Processes and Systems

Complicated processes and systems can create vulnerabilities. A lack of transparency or elaborate workflows provide opportunities for a fraudster to exploit any gap or weak point.

4. Weak Approval Processes

Relying on manual signoffs, whether using rubber stamps or handwritten signatures, creates an opportunity for fraud. Stamps can be misused, signatures can change, and both can be forged. Implementing more secure approval methods such as digital signatures or automated workflows can help mitigate this risk.

5. Inadequate Training and Awareness

Fraudulent activities are both crimes of opportunity and omission. Employees should have proper training on accounts payable fraud prevention including different types of fraudulent payments and fraud attempts, ethical behavior, and reporting procedures. A lack of awareness can lead to unintentional assistance to fraudulent activities.

6. Lack of Automation

Manual processing is not only slow but can lead to errors, delays, and a lack of transparency. Physical documents are easy to forge or alter, creating an opportunity for unauthorized payments, duplicate payments, or false invoices made, and fraudulent transactions.

Accounts payable software streamlines the entire payment process, improving accuracy, enforcing compliance, and increasing transparency throughout the entire accounts payable process.

Fraud in the business world can take many forms, often resulting in significant losses and reputational damage. While there are several different types of accounts payable fraud, most fall into one of the following 4 categories.

Understanding these categories can help organizations to develop strategies to prevent and detect fraudulent. By being aware of them, you can proactively take measures to protect their assets and reputation.

Vendor fraud

Vendor fraud occurs when a company is deceived by individuals posing as legitimate vendors or when vendors work with company employees to defraud the organizations. Common types include:

• Fictitious vendors – Vendors create fake accounts and submit invoices for goods and services that were never provided.
• Vendor collusion – Employees and suppliers work together to defraud the company, often through inflating prices or submitting invoices for non-existent goods or services.
• Overpayment – Fraudsters intentionally overpay vendors, then request a refund to be paid into their own account.

Payment Fraud

Payment fraud involves illicit activities related to processing and dispersing funds, particularly check fraud. These are especially prevalent in organizations that rely heavily on checks or ACH payments. Common forms include:

• Check tampering – Altering a check to change the payee’s name, account, or amount.
• Check theft – Stealing company checks and forging signatures to deposit funds into a fraudster-controlled account.
• Check forgery – Creating counterfeit checks to withdraw money from the organization’s account.
• ACH Payments – Fraudulent Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions involve unauthorized electronic payments, often through access to company banking details.

Invoice Fraud

Invoice fraud involves manipulating billing documents for funds. Some typical examples include:

• Fake invoices – Submitting invoices for goods or services that were never provided, often through fake vendor accounts.
• Duplicate invoices – Submitting the same invoice multiple times to receive multiple payments for the same service or product. This may include changing accounts numbers or similar details.
• Inflated invoices – Altering invoice amounts to receive more money that what is owed.

Employee Fraud

Employee fraud occurs when employees deceive their employer for personal gain. Examples of expense fraud include:

• False expense reports – Expense reimbursement fraud involves falsifying receipts or overstating expenses including mileage to receive unwarranted reimbursements.
• Misuse of company cards – When employees use company cards for personal purchases that then attempt to disguise as business-related.
• Kickback schemes – Employees and vendors collaborate to inflate contract prices or submit falsified invoices, with the profit split between them.
• Conflict of interest – When employees exploit their professional roles for personal gain, such as awarding contracts to businesses in which they have a financial interest or favoring a personal acquaintance.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), organizations lose 5% of annual revenue to fraud every year, with a median loss of $125,000 before detection. In addition, fraud typically goes unnoticed for an average of 14 months, although the timelines vary depending on the type of fraud.

5 Signs of AP Fraud

• Unexplained variances in accounts payable balances
• Invoices from unfamiliar vendors
• Invoices with duplicate invoice numbers
• Changes to vendor contact or account information
• Employee requests to expedite payments that bypass established procedures

Finding Fraud

Fraud detection often begins with a simple review of accounts payable records and processes to uncover potential evidence and indicators. Some key signs include missing checks, inactive or duplicate supplier payments, and unexplained discrepancies in records. Investigating suspicious transactions and consistently verifying vendor information are also crucial measures in identifying and combatting fraud.

Techniques to Detect Fraud

There are various techniques to detect AP fraud, including Benford’s Law, monitoring and auditing, advanced data analytics, and implementing segregation of duties. However, relying on a single method is insufficient; combining multiple techniques is essential for effectively detecting AP fraud.

If you find evidence of payable fraud, take immediate action to mitigate damage and prevent further losses of financial assets. Report the fraud to the appropriate authorities and conduct a thorough investigation.

Here are seven fundamental measures to prevent accounts payable fraud from occurring.

1. Implement Strong Internal Controls

Implementing strong internal controls, such as segregating duties and creating audit trails, is important in preventing fraud in the accounts payable function. Segregation of duties in the accounts payable department ensures that no one person has too much control over financial transactions and increases accountability. Establishing a clear vendor approval process, meticulous invoice approval procedures, implementing payment disbursement controls, and conducting regular reconciliations further strengthen safeguards.

These measures all work together to safeguard against potential fraud risks.

2. Conduct Regular Audits and Verify Vendor Information

Regular audits are essential for detecting payable fraud by uncovering anomalies and inconsistencies in financial records. Additionally, verifying vendor information including tax ID numbers and purchase orders, plays a crucial role in preventing fraudulent payments.

3. Use Technology Solutions

Using technology solutions is crucial for both preventing and investigating accounts payable fraud. Automated invoice and payment processing systems can quickly detect anomalies and flag suspicious data and transactions in real-time.

Furthermore, implementing secure electronic payments and encryption protocols enhances data protection, effectively safeguarding sensitive financial information against unauthorized access or manipulation.

4. Use Payment Sanction Screening and SWIFT

Payment sanction screening can help detect and prevent fraudulent payments by screening against sanction lists. Utilizing SWIFT’s transaction screening service can effectively identify suspicious transactions and quickly alert finance teams to potential risks.

5. Set Rules and Best Practices

Establishing clear rules and best practices for payment processes is essential in preventing payable fraud. Confusion and potential fraud can be avoided simply by verifying payment amounts and confirming that vendors received payment.

6. Employee Training

Implementing a fraud awareness program educates employees about the risks of payable fraud and empower them to prevent it by recognizing red flags and emphasizing the use of secure connections when handling sensitive information. Promoting transparency and fostering open communication further motivates employees to report any suspicious activity promptly.

7. Stay Current on Fraud Prevention Techniques

Staying current on fraud prevention techniques is essential for staying ahead of evolving threats. This proactive approach allows you to continuously adapt and strengthen your defenses against accounts payable fraud, safeguarding your organization. Some key steps to achieve this include continuous education on emerging fraud schemes and prevention strategies, regularly updating and optimizing your technology systems, and monitoring industry-specific accounts payable fraud trends.

While fraud has always been a threat, the increasingly global nature of business has caused a similar rise in attacks. Discovering and eliminating this threat as soon as possible can save companies significant time, money, and headache. this is why accounts payable fraud detection plays such a key role.

AP automation can play a key role in protecting your organization against fraud and reducing accounts payable fraud risks. Automated systems incorporate stringent controls and oversight processes that provide increased accuracy and consistency, eliminating accounting human errors and creating a transparent digital audit trail. In addition, automating AP processes, combined with machine learning for duplicate data and anomaly detection.

How Yooz Can Help

Yooz end-to-end AP automation incorporates a unique combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that safeguards your organization from the very start of the invoice process. Contact us today for a free demonstration on how advanced AP automation can help safeguard you!

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