Is Fraud Prevention Really A Necessary Evil?

Fraud happens…

unfortunately… it happens a lot.

There is Fraud that is carried out by external parties that are simply out to get you

• Malicious actors sending invoices that look like they are from your suppliers, for money you actually owe the supplier – but the bank account details are of the fraudster’s
• Stolen Cards
• All account takeover due to compromised credentials – hardest to spot and usually the most devastating

And then there is fraud perpetrated by an organisation’s own employees – which, as a surprise to many, happens more often, goes unnoticed and is dealt with more leniently.

Why, you might ask… because businesses rely most on their own employees to catch this kind of fraud, calling it a “necessary evil”. Typical fraud prevention methods: “be more vigilant, set up a tip line, establish clear ethical policies, educate employees to catch other employees, conduct more background checks, make examples out of fraudsters” etc. Truth is, this just doesn’t work because:

• Obvious: Your also “educating” the bad apples in what to avoid when being bad – criminals don’t police themselves
• Less obvious: Your good apples are expected to question and police their own colleagues and friends – people that they eat lunch with, hang out with after work and even invite to their momentous occasions – not easy for the average person
• Least obvious (or perhaps just least talked about): Bad apples are desperate and good at social engineering. Convincing the good apples to look the other way, to leave gates unlocked, or worse, to be bad with them “just this one time” doesn’t weigh on their conscience like it should. On the other hand, the good apples are susceptible to this.

This “policing your own mates” is not only ineffective at preventing fraud, it’s also counter productive to the ‘we’re-in-this-together’ work environment that is crucial for making it through tough times like the last 2 years. It’s a highly ineffective “necessary evil”.

That’s where the cold, stealy arms of AP automation come in and digitally drive unfailing, impartial policing against fraud. The blind-folded eyes of the system judge all apples without prejudice, record everything they see and are impenetrable to social engineering. 

The system takes away the awkwardness of looking over your friend’s shoulder and labeling them a fraudster. The system is objective and doesn’t care if a supplier is a long-time trade partner – where it sees an issue, it throws a big red flag. The system does the policing 24/7 and applies fraud prevention measures fairly, safeguarding everyone.

The ProSpend platform is a top-of-the-line AP Automation system with many built-in fraud prevention features. Here is a list of some of the key ones, and our team, as always, would be more than happy to get into the nitty gritty of each feature so please ask:

• eInvoicing
• Supplier ABN Validation
• New Supplier Workflow
• Syncing Suppliers from ERPs
• Bank Account Detail Verification and Secure Workflows to Manage Discrepancies
• Supplier Payment Averages Comparisons
• Duplicate Invoice Checks
• Receipt Usage Tracking
• Granular User Access Management
• Detailed and Reportable Audit Trails
• Mandatory Purchase Orders
• Budget Visibility and Validation
• Complex Approval Flows made easy to implement

With all these features at hand, employees (aka apples, as we’ve clearly established) are  empowered, enabled and made more accountable for their actions. The system monitors and tracks every dollar, records every action and throws flags where necessary – and employees simply remain vigilant and react to these system generated flags. Policing of mates is largely automated, consistent, system driven and no longer an awkward “necessary evil” that employees have to do.

Prospend is in place … apples are trained to use it … fraud is being kept out the door

ProSpend is Australia’s leading Spend Management Platform that offers Smart Automation for finance teams. Through one cloud-based platform, you can easily manage expenses, supplier invoices, purchase orders and travel spend. All with budget visibility. ProSpend is 100% Australian owned & developed and is used every day by leading brands, including KFC, WWF, Best & Less, Guide Dogs, Peoplebank and many more. For those looking to better understand the benefits of automation, book your FREE savings consultation.