Author: Laura Bulmer
Invoice fraud occurs when fraudulent invoices are created or altered to steal money from a company. This might involve fake invoices for goods or services that were never provided, duplicate invoices, or manipulation of existing invoices. Common tactics of invoice fraud include inflating prices or quantities, creating entirely fictitious suppliers, or redirecting payments to unauthorised accounts.
Invoice fraud is a growing threat to businesses of all sizes, in all industries. If you have an accounts payable process, you have a potential for fraud. Without proper safeguards, companies risk losing significant revenue due to fraudulent invoices. Implementing document management software with inbuilt workflows can massively reduce the risk of invoice fraud and can protect your business by automatically detecting suspicious activity, such as duplicate or altered invoices.
Manual invoice processing is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error. By automating the accounts payable process, you reduce the risk of invoice fraud while increasing efficiency. Automated systems can accurately extract data from invoices, verify data against agreed data sets such as approved supplier lists, streamline payment processes and add a crucial layer of security.
The risk of invoice fraud within your business can be presented internally and externally. Sometimes it might even be a mixture of both. These are types of invoice fraud you should look out for:
Invoice Fraud By Employees
Employees with access to financial systems may exploit weaknesses to create fake invoices or redirect payments.
External Invoice Fraud
Criminals posing as legitimate suppliers may submit false invoices or intercept genuine invoices and change payment details.
Invoice Fraud Collusion
Sometimes, both internal and external people work together to commit fraud. This type of fraud is common in industries with high-volume transactions or accounts payable processes which lack transparency, user restrictions and approvals.
Poor systems within your accounts payable processes increase the risk of invoice fraud by leaving vulnerabilities in several key areas of the invoicing and payment process.
Manual processing of invoices is error-prone and time-consuming. It creates opportunities for fraudsters to slip in fake or altered invoices without being noticed. Automated systems detect inconsistencies more efficiently and can even offer integration with your ERP or finance system.
Without robust approval workflows, it's easier for employees or external actors to manipulate invoices, approve fraudulent payments, or create fictitious suppliers.
Poor systems often fail to verify supplier authenticity, making it easier for fraudsters to submit fake invoices.
Systems that don't track invoice history or payment details in real time make it difficult to detect and audit suspicious activity.
In large organisations with poor coordination between departments, invoices might bypass proper checks, increasing the likelihood of fraudulent activity.
Without proper safeguards, companies risk losing significant revenue due to fraudulent invoices. Implementing software to prevent invoice fraud can protect your business by automatically detecting suspicious activity, such as duplicate or altered invoices.
Implementing proper digital solutions such as DocuWare helps reduce these risks by increasing visibility, automating checks, and securing workflows.
Moving from a paper-based processes to a digital workflow isn’t as daunting as you might think. If your processes are already well documented then implementing document management software that will remove paper in favour of digital files, will be fairly straight forward.... A digital workflow connects separate processes together through integrated systems that talk to one another. With document management software paper-based processes are replaced. We can guide you through moving from paper-based invoice processing to a digital version.
Looking to scan your invoices in ? High quality scanners ensure data is captured accurately and efficiently and when integrated with document management software, it cannot be lost or misplaced. Read more here.
To effectively protect your business from invoice fraud, it’s essential to leverage software solutions designed to detect and prevent discrepancies. A great example of this is document management software.
Document management software can help to prevent invoice fraud by using advanced algorithms to identify unusual patterns in your accounts payable, flagging potential threats.
This software not only helps safeguard your finances but also boosts operational efficiency, reducing manual checks and enhancing security.
DocuWare can help to prevent invoice fraud by allowing finance leaders to implement rules and transparency across the accounts payable process. Some examples of the ways DocuWare can help you tackle invoice fraud are:
Automated Data Capture from invoices – this makes the process far quicker but also the risk of human error or manipulating invoices to commit invoice fraud.
Rule-Based Permissions to raise Purchase orders and Approve invoices – DocuWare works on bespoke user permissions. This means you can define who can carry out specific tasks along the accounts payable process.
Supplier validation against defined Supplier Data Sets – this is crucial to prevent invoice fraud as creating fake suppliers is a common tactic used to commit invoice fraud.
Invoice Approval Allocation – digital workflows mean that invoices will be routed to approvers based on whatever parameters required such as specific suppliers or based on value.
Integration with Finance & ERP Systems – this link ensures we can check against data sets in your main systems as well as transferring data on scheduled routines which offers better transparency and minimises the risk of invoice fraud.
The key to preventing invoice fraud is ensuring that there are strict measures in place with full transparency of the whole process. DocuWare can offer this transparency throughout any document-based process in your business and a very common use case is the accounts payable process. Read our latest blog on The Essential Role of Invoice Software in Modern Finance Systems.
Automating invoice processes not only minimises the risk of fraud but also enhances transparency and efficiency. A system that processes invoices digitally ensures accuracy, reduces manual data entry, and simplifies auditing. Learn more about automating your processes in this guide by DocTech.
