Fraud in Focus: How Can You See It All?
If you’re asking yourself if fraud is truly an issue to be concerned with in your business – the answer is a resounding YES! It is estimated that the typical organisation loses 5% of annual revenues to fraud each year.[1]
Fraud exists within every organisation of every size and industry. And if you are not leveraging the right technology to prevent and monitor fraud, you are losing money. Detection is not a solution on its own, but coupled with prevention and monitoring strategies, you will be better protected.
How can you see it all? While fraud can seem like a complex issue, companies can take these proactive steps to help identify any red flags:
- Use a preventative approach. Adopt systems that allow employees to submit expenses for preapproval, guide travel decisions with colour-coded cues, and capture every itinerary regardless of where it was booked.
- Remember information is power. Set audit rules, require receipt type and itemised line items. Review individual transactions and look for patterns – essential information can be gathered to help with UK Bribery Act violations.
- Mandate a corporate card programme. Expenses that are auto-imported into an management system, ensure that travellers cannot modify their expenses. Also, with a corporate card programme, you can add additional controls, such as setting credit or transaction limits.
- Organise and share data to empower. Package and share travel and expense data with key stakeholders within your organisation. Make the data easy to understand and actionable.
- Identify key trends. Review areas of concern such as volume of expense reimbursements, personal payments, top spenders, cash advances, high mileage and lump sum tips.
This is just the start of your journey to detecting and preventing fraud within your business. There are additional avenues you need to explore to ensure inaccuracies and intentional fraud is identified before your money is lost.