Protect Your Organization from Accounts Payable Fraud: Identifying Red Flags and Strengthening Internal Controls

OVERVIEW Accounts Payable (AP) is the one business function that, in many organizations, is more vulnerable to fraud than any other. That is because all funds that flow out of the organization must first pass through AP. And over time, dishonest insiders and vendors have created newer and craftier methods of stealing from organizations by exploiting control weaknesses in the AP function. It is more important than ever for management to allocate professional and financial resources to eliminating these control weaknesses. This almost always starts with learning about the types of Accounts Payable fraud that can victimize your organization. It is then necessary to determine if proper internal controls are already in place to prevent such crimes from occurring. From there, internal audit plans must be adjusted to include tests and methodologies for identifying the red flags of possible AP fraud . This enables management to initiate further examination of suspicious f...