Fraud prevention is becoming a crucial priority for companies in our modern era of technology-driven business. Even the most minor of AP frauds can result in a loss of tens of thousands of dollars, contributing to the billions of losses to businesses across the country. Fortunately, there are many best practices your company can follow to ensure you are keeping your AP process safe and secure.
Identify and Highlight Potential AP Risks
Billing-related fraud is one of the most common types of fraud companies encounter across the country. Additional issues relating to improper expense reimbursement, check tampering, and skimming are not far behind. Companies that do not have significant fraud protection suffer much more in terms of financial loss than those with best practices in place. It is vital for those with access to AP accounts to understand potential risks and identify warning signs for these types of fraud.
Provide a Process for Employees
When employees identify potential fraudulent activity, they need to be able to escalate the issue to the proper people in the company who can address it. This reporting process should involve more than just one escalation contact, as a majority of the people who commit corporate fraud are senior-level employees who have worked at their company for years. Assigning multiple people to review notices of potential fraud can help reduce threats.
Build-in Safety Checks
When payments are to be made to other businesses, your company should implement a multilayered approval workflow to mitigate the risk against fraud. When multiple people have access to review outbound payments, the additional layers of security help keep the process honest and transparent. With cutting-edge AP technology, the extra protection can be as easy as the click of a mouse.
Train Your Professionals in Security Measures
Criminals have been placing a greater emphasis on attacking small- to medium-sized businesses, as they frequently lack security policies, procedures, and budgets to handle fraud. To ensure your company is protected, confirm all of your professionals are trained to identify fraudulent and phishing emails, regardless of whether they deal with the AP process directly.
Hackers often just need access to one person’s account to gain admittance to an entire system. This can be as simple as a user downloading a single file or clicking a single link. Everyone from the CEO down to an entry-level employee should be trained on how to identify and deal with potential frauds.
Get a Bird’s Eye View
With AP technology, you can shift your processes from the traditional, error-prone, manual methods to new and significantly improved digital approaches. With a transparent trail of custody throughout the digital process, your company can easily increase both efficiency and accuracy.
With so many new threats to a company’s data, businesses need to place a greater emphasis on security in order to quickly detect and freeze out AP fraud. Doing so will go a long way in ensuring a company’s data is protected on an ongoing basis.
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