How AP Automation Mitigates Fraud
by The Ottimate Editorial Team
While automated accounts payable (AP) solutions are touted for their ability to save businesses time and money, there’s another critical benefit: the best end-to-end AP automation solutions will help mitigate fraud.
AP Automation Can Perform Invoice Validation
Automated AP systems can perform rigorous validations and checks on invoices, including matching them against purchase orders and receipts. This ensures that only legitimate invoices are processed for payment, reducing the risk of fraudulent or unauthorized invoices being paid.
Automated AP Solutions Can Detect Duplicate Payments
Automated AP solutions can flag duplicate invoices by comparing invoice details, vendor information, and payment history. This helps prevent accidental or intentional duplicate payments, which can be accidental or a known fraud tactic.
Hear about it from a couple of our clients, and go to Ottimate’s reviews for even more testimonials.
Chief Engineer Tim L: “I love that [Ottimate] immediately alerts me if there’s a double invoice.” (Feb 2022)
Applebee’s: “[Ottimate solved] double invoices” (May 2023)
Automated AP Provides Approval Workflow and Segregation of Duties
Automated AP systems provide built-in approval workflows, ensuring that invoices go through appropriate levels of review and approval. This helps enforce the segregation of duties, reducing the chances of fraudulent activity by requiring multiple individuals to review and authorize payments.
But don’t take our word for it!
Restaurant owner Jason D has this to say about Ottimate, “Just after a few months, we realize hours of time savings weekly not only in eliminating manual data entry but also in simplifying the invoice approval and payment workflow.” (Feb 2022)
Automated AP Maintains Audit Trails and Document Management
Automated AP systems maintain a comprehensive audit trail of all activities, including invoice creation, approvals, and payment transactions. This transparent record of actions creates accountability and makes it easier to trace any suspicious activities or transactions.
Not sure how that would play out in real life? We have customer success stories and reviews available to you!
Country Club CFO Steve F: “[Ottimate has helped us with] The speed and accuracy of the invoice processing algorithm, the EDI interface with major food vendors, the flexible ways to upload invoices (document scans, email, website, photos via convenient mobile app), department-level approvals, dashboard insights, easy-to-use integration with our Clubessential ERP, seamless integration with bill payment processing, bill payment optimization (ACH, vCard, and paper checks), and much more.” (April 2022)
Discover how Ottimate helps clubhouses automate and streamline accounts payable.
AP Automation Can Analyze and Monitor Data
Automated AP solutions can analyze patterns and trends in financial data, helping identify anomalies or unusual transactions that may indicate fraud. By monitoring and flagging unusual activities, the system can generate alerts for further investigation and prevent fraudulent payments.
Anthony J: “Processing all our invoices and alerting for duplicates is essential” [Likes best about Ottimate] (May 2023)
Automated AP Solutions Offer Enhanced Security Measures
Automated AP systems offer robust security measures to protect sensitive financial information. These measures can include role-based access controls, data encryption, and secure storage, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access and manipulate financial data.
To further safeguard customers’ financial data, Ottimate recently completed its SOC 2® audit. The globally recognized assessment validates our commitment to critical security standards to protect and secure any data stored in our platform. With this important milestone, we can guarantee the security, confidentiality, and privacy of your data while delivering an AP automation solution you can trust.
AP Automation Facilitates Vendor Management and Verification
Automated AP processes can facilitate the verification and management of vendors, such as validating their legitimacy and maintaining up-to-date vendor information. By ensuring that only authorized vendors are paid, organizations can mitigate the risk of fraudsters posing as vendors and submitting fraudulent invoices.
According to Accounting Manager Mary H: “Ottimate is allowing us to quickly process and approve invoices. This allows us to manage our cash flow much better as well as pay our vendors on time. . . We are able to customize the available GL and vendors.” (July 2022)
Automated AP Solutions Provide Financial Reporting and Analysis
Automated AP systems provide real-time visibility into financial data and reporting. This allows for proactive monitoring of financial activities and timely identification of discrepancies or irregularities, reducing the potential impact of fraud.
Restaurant Owner: “[We use Ottimate for] Uploading invoices for payment processing and categorization for when it comes to analyzing profits and losses.” (May 2023)
Conclusion
By implementing the right end-to-end AP solution, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of fraud through enhanced validation, approval workflows, data analytics, audit trails, and improved security measures. And, in the best solutions, these features work hand in hand with your ability to not just avoid fraud but also have a more efficient, streamlined AP automation process that can save your organization time, hassle, and money.
Ready to see what best-in-class end-to-end automated AP that’s powered by AI looks like for your organization?
Check out Ottimate’s award-winning products or get in touch with questions and schedule your customized demo.
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