Putting the AP in hAPpy

Send us Fan Mail Banks merge, get acquired or fail – often.  This is not something your vendor normally makes their clients aware of, so if you want three ways to find out before fines or returned payments….. Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraud...

Send us Fan Mail Organizations put processes in place when adding new vendors and changing existing vendor information to avoid fraud, regulatory fines and bad vendor data.  But are they being followed? Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent...

Send us Fan Mail Phase 2 of the Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule for ACH initiators is here and now everyone has to comply.  What are the requirements and are you ready? Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent payments, compliance fines or bad vend...

Send us Fan Mail An article outlines what’s wrong with traditional cybersecurity awareness training against today’s fraudsters but misses the mark on the resolution to evolving fraudster tactics.  Let’s fill-in the gaps.  Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potenti...

Send us Fan Mail The August 1st deadline for filing 1099 corrections is closer than you think—and missing it could cost your company in IRS penalties. In this episode, I’m breaking down which errors demand immediate correction, which ones may not, and the two options to reduce or avoid unnecessary fines.  So, to know exactly what to fix, what to ignore, and how to protect your organization before...

Send us Fan Mail According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) after studying 2,402 cases that led to $3.4 Billion in losses across in 143 countries and territories, they have both the profile of an internal fraudster and 8 behavioral red flags to look for.  Not to mention the #1 weakness that allowed the fraud and the #1way employers found out about the fraud. Keep listening. ...

Send us Fan Mail Finally – some great news from the IRS of all places.  Yes there is a new IRS Draft W-9 form and it’s good for the vendor team.    Keep listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent payments, compliance fines or bad vendor data. Check o...

Send us Fan Mail Agentic AI in email can be the difference between making a fraudulent payment and catching the payment fraud before the request moves past email.  As with all tools, there are activities that require a human.     Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the...

Send us Fan Mail What if you had not only had second set of eyes to review a vendor email to make sure there are no red flags in when there is a request to change banking, but also to check for this new fraudster trend to pass your confirmation call?   Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best...

Send us Fan Mail Approval workflows for vendor adds and changes can help to reduce payment fraud and avoidable errors in vendor data.  For why to do it and how to do it if your system does not support approval workflows…… Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potent...

Send us Fan Mail How good are your email addresses in your vendor master file?  Are they still valid?  Are they fraudulent?  Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent payments, compliance fines or bad vendor data. Check out the Vendor Process Tr...

Send us Fan Mail Are you and your team members fully trained on the accounting system or ERP as needed to perform their jobs?  If you answered no, or “huh?” how would you do on a self-assessment?  Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent paymen...

Send us Fan Mail Around April of every year right after the tax filing season for 1099s and 1042s, just when you think you are done with IRS tasks for now, you receive an IRS CP2100 notification…now what… Keep listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudule...

Send us Fan Mail Around April of every year right after the tax filing season for 1099s and 1042s, the vendor teams definitely know they have some issues with their vendor data.  If you clean your vendor master file only once per year – that could be the problem. Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal control...

Send us Fan Mail This fraud prevention strategy appeared in a 1982 film with Robert De Niro and still works today to avoid deepfakes that lead to B2B payment fraud.  Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent payments, compliance fines or bad ven...

Send us Fan Mail Phase 1 of the Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule for ACH initiators is here.  Part of the rule requires that you have a risk-based approach, but what criteria can you use to determine risk for your vendors?  In this episode we’ll talk about three approaches to classify your vendors based on risk.   Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implement...

Send us Fan Mail You may already be sending pre-notes when vendors submit banking for an ACH payment method, or maybe you’re thinking about it as a way to comply with the upcoming Nacha rule.  Here’s why pre-notes don’t help to prevent fraud and are not recommended for Nacha compliance. Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication tech...

Send us Fan Mail If you’re already performing the confirmation call for vendor changes – are you already compliant with the upcoming Nacha ACH fraud monitoring rule with a March 20, 2026 deadline? Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent paymen...

Send us Fan Mail Nacha rules – just keep coming.  If you are involved in the vendor process, there are two Nacha rules with a compliance deadline of March 20, 2026.  So, if you haven’t heard of them yet or have and are not quite sure what they are, here is where you can go to get more information.   Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authen...

Send us Fan Mail So you sent recipient statements to your vendors for Tax Year 2025 – and some came back.  Here is how to handle them to reduce penalties from the IRS.  Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the potential for fraudulent payments, compliance fines or bad...

Send us Fan Mail If you paid foreign vendors reportable income in TY 2025 and want to file the 1042-S forms using one of the two IRS free e-Filing tools – this episode will break down three differences between the FIRE and IRIS that might make your decision easier.  Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal cont...

Send us Fan Mail Congrats!  You made the deadline for sending 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC recipient statements to your vendors and the related IRS tax filing deadline for the 1099-NEC.  Then your phone starts ringing with vendors, and now you have corrections to what you reported.  Or your organization has multiple entities and you realized income was reported for vendors using the wrong organization. ...

Send us Fan Mail What do you do if it’s getting down to the wire to be in compliance with the IRS deadlines for sending vendors their 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC or filing both with the IRS, and you know you are going to be late. Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the pote...

Send us Fan Mail Don’t forget to still do your tax reporting research at the State level, even if that State participates in the Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) Program.  For two reasons you still need to check and a process to do it…. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices t...

Send us Fan Mail My head is starting to hurt as clients, subscribers and others reach out to ask about the impact of the IRS draft form W-9.  More and more questions are arising and I have 5 that you should start thinking about…. Keep listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce th...