How AP automation solutions help to prevent accounts payable fraud
Imagine a scenario where you’re an Accounts Payable (AP) Administrator at a busy, fast-growing technology company. It’s month-end – invoices are piling up, vendors are chasing payments, and management is pressing for quick turnaround. Most of your processes are still manual: invoices arrive by email, approval trails are tracked in spreadsheets, and payment details are entered by hand.
In the middle of this, you receive an email from a familiar supplier – the name, logo, and tone look exactly right. They mention their banking details have changed and that payment is due today to avoid a service disruption. Everything about the message feels legitimate. Under pressure to meet deadlines, you update the details and process the payment.
A few days later, the real supplier calls to ask why they haven’t been paid. Only then do you realise what’s happened – the email wasn’t from them at all. You’ve just been caught in an invoice fraud scam.
Unfortunately, this situation isn’t rare. According to UK Finance, businesses lost over £50 million to invoice and mandate scams in a single year, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases. Another survey by Ivalua found that 31% of UK organisations have experienced invoice fraud in the past 12 months. Despite this, 65% of UK businesses still process invoices manually – leaving them vulnerable to human error, social engineering, and sophisticated impersonation attempts.
These scams are becoming harder to detect. Fraudsters don’t just rely on fake invoices anymore; they intercept real supplier emails, copy genuine invoice templates, and even mimic senior executives to rush approvals. They exploit the exact conditions that define a typical AP environment – high workload, time pressure, and reliance on manual processes.
Payment fraud risk
This isn’t just a hypothetical example: incidents like this occur frequently when businesses rely on manual processing. An automated AP process could help your business to identify double billing and financial scams, taking the time to double check documentation that you don’t have the time to.
This is vital, as financial crime is a significant risk to businesses. In 2024, the UK lost £1.17bn due to fraud, with 3.31 million incidents reported. Numerous organisations have experienced invoice fraud, with manual systems leaving businesses open to attack or financial loss simply due to endless paperwork, no audit trail, and inefficient operations.
Find out how traditional procedures create risk, and how AP automation can mitigate these problems. Discover how integrating systems like DocuWare and ThereforeTM could help to detect and prevent this type of fraud, streamlining processes and reducing the risk of financial loss, even when in high-pressure situations.
Problems with manual accounts payable processes
Human error
If your business is using non-automated workflows, it means that people are relied on to accurately enter data, review invoices and approve payments. Ultimately, we are only human – even if your AP team are very detail oriented and careful, mistakes can easily be made:
Typos and errors –Â a misplaced comma or misread digit could lead to payments not being made or incorrect payments being sent.
Missed approvals –Â invoices may be paid without being properly signed off: informal approval chains can produce faults.
Overlooked duplicates –Â it is very easy, without automated checks, for staff to pay invoices twice by mistake, particularly if there are multiple formats or contacts involved.
Delayed processing –Â human bottlenecks can slow down invoice handling. This can lead to late payments or strained relationships with vendors.
Lack of visibility
Using manual procedures limits your ability to track, monitor and understand the invoice and payment lifecycle. This could result in:
Unclear invoice status –Â teams may not know if a payment has been made, leading to delays, missed payments or duplicate payments.
Lack of real-time oversight –Â those responsible for making payments must rely on spreadsheets, emails or paper documents that are hard to consolidate, which can make it difficult to know what is due and when.
Limited audit trails –Â without logs being made automatically, it is hard to track what was paid and when, or which staff member completed what action. This can lead to disagreements with internal staff and vendors.
Poor spend analysis –Â using siloed processes can make it difficult to see where money could be saved. Being unable to spot spending trends limits cost saving opportunities.
Increased risk of financial crime – low visibility can lead to fraudulent invoices and bank details that go unnoticed. This allows criminals to exploit this to their advantage.
Easy invoice manipulation
Manual tasks, due to elements such as human error and lack of visibility, as previously discussed, are easier to exploit. Common tactics used to commit AP fraud include:
Invoice alteration –Â criminals from within businesses or cyber criminals working from online can modify legitimate invoices, change amounts and alter bank details without being noticed.
Fake vendors –Â sometimes, invoices can come in, and without an automated follow up, be paid without checking their authenticity. These ghost suppliers are used to funnel payments to fraudulent accounts, and manual methods may not identify them.
Email impersonation –Â similarly, cybercriminals can pretend to be vendors (or executives in your business) via email, to request false payments to their own bank accounts.
Lack of accountability – criminal activity is harder to detect and investigate in an audit if there isn’t a clear and simple way of tracking who approved which payments.
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How AP automation tools can help to prevent fraud
Automate invoice capture and indexing
Automated systems can scan invoices, using OCR based data extraction to find key information like the invoice number, vendor name and amount stated. This intelligent indexing reduces the risk of these details being altered, either accidentally through error or maliciously by attempted fraudsters.
Three-way matching
Using automation systems, invoices can be matched against the purchase order as well as the delivery receipt. By ensuring this consistency, discrepancies can be spotted, and incorrect payments stopped. Furthermore, this automation flags possible duplicates and ensures accurate vendor verification.
Approval workflows with audit trail automation
Accounts payable operations that integrate automation are routed through approved channels: this eliminates confusion around payment errors. Instead, every step is tracked to maintain compliance and accountability, as well as to help protect against financial crimes by halting unauthorised or rushed payments.
Duplicate detection logic
Every time invoice numbers, amounts, or vendor details are repeated, they are flagged by duplicate invoice detection. This document is then flagged to the AP team, allowing them to confirm whether to proceed with the payment. In doing this, you can ensure duplicate errors are prevented and fraudulent activities are identified.
Bank detail verification
Software like DocuWare validate vendor bank details against known records or databases. This blocks Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams and helps to stop payments to fraudulent or compromised accounts.
Set specific rules
Users can have the software personalised to follow certain rules during the AP payment process. For example, you could ensure that payments can only be signed off if they are approved by a director or manager. This reduces the risk of invoice scams and offering more control.
Real-time dashboards and alerts
Automation can help finance teams to monitor invoice status, approval bottlenecks and detect anomalies. This level of analysis can be used to spot patterns, enable a quick response to issues and improve visibility. Additionally, setting up alerts can speed up tasks, reminding staff of documentation that they need to complete.
Impact on business
All these features work in tandem, helping to detect accounts payable fraud in your procedures. However, AP automation has a range of other benefits, such as:
- Improving operational efficiency
- Reducing administrative burden
- Allowing for better scalability in your business
- Cost savings
When selecting which automated system to integrate into your business, it will vary, depending on which of these benefits matters most to you. For smaller businesses, ThereforeTM may be a good option, while DocuWare could be more suitable for a larger enterprise.
Man vs machine
AP process automation is designed to assist AP staff, not replace them
When it comes to this kind of technology, there are always those who will question it. With automation systems like ThereforeTM and DocuWare that can take care of manual tasks for you, those who work in AP may wonder if their jobs are safe moving forward.
While understandable, accounts payable professionals don’t need to be concerned. These AP automations are designed to take care of repetitive but time-consuming tasks, so that you have more time to focus on more important things. Your job isn’t at risk: if anything, AP automation may provide you with the time needed to take your role and career further.
Why it matters to your business
Prevent accounts payable fraud today
With financial fraud risks evolving rapidly, now is a great time to consider automation to help to protect your AP operations. Criminals will be using AI and similar automated processes to achieve their goals, so embracing these same technologies in your defences is essential to keeping up with shifting standards.
Learn more about AP fraud detection
If you want to know more about how document management systems can monitor your business’ AP process to detect human error and financial crime, as well as how their automation technology can reduce costs and save time, sign up for our upcoming webinar below.
Landall Services will be talking with DocuWare on Wednesday 12th November 2025, showing users the different manual operations that can be automated: sign up now to join us live.
Host & Speakers
Matthieu Sewell
Marketing ManagerÂ
James Chantler
BDM
