Putting the AP in hAPpy

Send us Fan Mail Remember the days where it was easier to spot an email from a fraudster because it had poor grammar?  Well, fraudsters have access to generative artificial intelligence (just like we do) and now that fraudulent email may be grammatically correct as a college application essay.  But there are still red flags you can look for….and controls you can put into place to mitigate.   Keep...

Send us Fan Mail When was the last time you reviewed your security roles and what access is included?  Reduce the potential for fraud by restricting who has access to your vendor data.  Why?  Because the less non-vendor team members that have access to sensitive data, the less potential for them to be social engineered into giving it away - resulting in fraud.  Discover how the vendor team can imp...

Send us Fan Mail If you are worried that artificial intelligence will take your job that’s a sign that you need to take control and flip that around.  Use Artificial Intelligence tools to keep your job!    Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regu...

Send us Fan Mail Unclaimed property for Accounts Payable can be a tedious, manual process from identifying what is unclaimed property to  sending letters to vendors to avoid the complicated process of transferring that property to the applicable states.  In between those steps, there are four vendor setup and maintenance tasks that might make the process easier. Keep Listening.  Check out my websi...

Send us Fan Mail I recently spoke at an in-person conference and while there I attended a session where an accounts payable practitioner revealed what they are doing when making the confirmation call that surprised other attendees – me included.   Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best pra...

Send us Fan Mail I now have access to the newest ChatGPT / GPT-4o, the “Omnimodel”.  The capabilities of this new model triggers reminders to the vendor team to not expose vendor data that can lead to fraud while using this technology.  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to...

Send us Fan Mail You may be getting some help from banks finally on avoiding fraudulent payments.  Hear what new Nacha rule is behind it, when it will go into effect, and what to look for, so….. Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fine...

Send us Fan Mail Remember when Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank failed in March of 2023?  Those were the first bank failures since October of 2020 and news was everywhere.  Well, there have been 4 more bank failures since then with the latest one in April of 2024.  What should the vendor team do?  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing au...

Send us Fan Mail I experimented with generative artificial intelligence or generative AI – voice cloning for an upcoming webinar on avoiding payment fraud from deepfakes.  Wasn’t expecting this….  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fi...

Send us Fan Mail You may worry about vendor banking information and preventing fraudulent electronic payments – however, both internal and external fraudsters are after your checks.  If you want to make sure you are protecting remittance addresses for your checks…. Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal contr...

Send us Fan Mail Validating Vendor Banking information is critical to 1) make sure payments are successful; and 2) to validate you are paying your actual vendor and not a cybercriminal.  There have been some changes in resources for 2024, so if you want to hear the updated resources……   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication te...

Send us Fan Mail Most internal fraudsters display at least one of eight (8) red flags that fraud is occurring.  Do you know what to look for?   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Pro...

Send us Fan Mail Now that the new IRS Form W-9 is published, let’s look at a frequently asked question I get – what should you do if the vendor’s legal name and tax id combination is not valid with the IRS?  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments,...

Send us Fan Mail In 2023, Business Email Compromise, or BEC, is still a money maker for fraudsters according to the latest report by the FBI.  Here is a quick look at the stats compared to 2022 and before the pandemic.   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudule...

Send us Fan Mail Finally – the IRS has published the updated version of the Form W-9.  Now what?   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check out my new Vendor Process Training Center for 116+ hours of weekly l...

Send us Fan Mail Do you have in your vendor bank account add or update process, that if the bank account ownership validation is successful – you stop right there?  That’s no longer appropriate.  Why?....  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, re...

Send us Fan Mail Remember that $25.6M successful payment to fraudsters?  Of course you do, seems like every media outlet and all the companies you subscribe to (like mine) reported on it too.  So how can you combat?   Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent pa...

Send us Fan Mail Get 20 tips to avoid the latest fraud trends of 2023 in 2024.  Discover the latest 6 fraud trends of last year and how you can stay updated, avoid and detect fraud in the vendor setup and maintenance process.    Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent f...

Send us Fan Mail Watchlists, sanction lists, exclusion lists, etc – here are three reasons why you may not be compliant with regulatory requirements.  Plus, how you can get recommendations at no extra charge or how you can “diy” and build your own watchlist compliance matrix.   Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques,...

Send us Fan Mail How hard is it for you to get approved $500 of training or software to help you do your job better?  See what fraudsters get for $500 to defraud you and your company.    Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad...

Send us Fan Mail To mitigate fraud, many companies are taking steps to avoid potential fraud risks – including verifying banking details via phone.  If that happens when you try to confirm your vendor’s bank change, what can you do?  Keep Listening.    Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to pre...

Send us Fan Mail It was two years into an AP Sr Manager position when I realized that another group had access to one of my vendor record screens in the vendor master file.  Just one.  What?  Why? Then we fixed it.  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent paym...

Send us Fan Mail Now that it’s 1099 season many of you are reminded of how you just didn’t get around to making sure the information you collect from your vendors is sufficient and valid for tax reporting, nor how you make sure it stays that way.  If you want 20 tips on how to handle your Federal and State Reportable Vendors year-round…..  Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardso...

Send us Fan Mail If your vendor had to notify you of a fraudulent payment, you don’t have enough controls.  Keep Listening.   Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to prevent fraudulent payments, regulatory fines or bad vendor data. Check the  Vendor Process Training Center for 115+ hours of week...

Send us Fan Mail It shouldn’t happen but it always does –  vendors don’t have a valid address on file. You don’t want check payments or 1099s to come back, so here are some free reliable sources to find an address that is tied to your vendor.  Keep Listening.  Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practice...