What are the red flags for invoice fraud?

Red flags for invoice fraud include unexpected or duplicate invoices, missing information like tax IDs or contact details, pressure for immediate payment, unusual payment methods, discrepancies in amounts or invoice numbers, changes in supplier banking information, and invoices for services never received. Be especially wary of invoices that arrive outside normal billing cycles or contain unusual formatting and spelling errors.

How can I verify an invoice?

Verify an invoice by confirming it matches your purchase order, checking the supplier details against your records, calling the vendor using contact information from your files (not the invoice), confirming delivery of goods/services, reviewing for calculation errors, and verifying tax information. Implement a multi-person approval process and maintain a database of approved vendors to compare against.

What is invoice manipulation fraud?

Invoice manipulation fraud occurs when someone alters legitimate invoices or creates fake ones to redirect payments. This includes changing bank account details, inflating amounts, duplicating invoices, or creating completely fictitious bills. Perpetrators may pose as legitimate vendors, create shell companies, or be internal employees with access to accounting systems. This fraud typically aims to divert funds to unauthorized accounts.

How do I prove invoice fraud?

To prove invoice fraud, collect evidence including the fraudulent invoices, bank records showing payments, communication with the fake vendor, and documentation showing the actual goods/services were never delivered. Compare the suspicious invoice with legitimate ones from the same vendor to identify discrepancies. Document the verification attempts you made and report the fraud to law enforcement, providing all evidence. Consider consulting a forensic accountant to strengthen your case.

Fraud prevention

Detect & prevent invoice fraud before it happens

Routable's embedded AI forensic accountant, combined with our battle-tested compliance features, works 24/7 to protect your business from invoice fraud, payment errors, and compliance risks.

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Dashboard showing the bill details of an invoice that had just been analysed using Routable's AI Agent

Superhuman visibility for your AP team

CFOs: Financial risk elimination & transparency

Protect your bottom line with proactive fraud detection that identifies threats before they impact your financial statements.

Controllers: Bulletproof financial controls

Strengthen your control environment with automated verification that ensures every payment follows proper protocols without creating bottlenecks.

Accountants: Error-free processing & payments

End the constant worry about payment mistakes with intelligent validation that catches errors before they require time-consuming corrections.

Fraud detection & prevention made easy

Here’s how Routable makes it easier to detect invoice fraud and prevent fraudulent payments to protect your business.

Intelligent fraud detection

Prevent payment fraud with AI-powered analysis that identifies suspicious patterns faster than human review ever could.

Automatically identify when invoice amounts exceed historical averages, spotting potential fraud that would otherwise go unnoticed
Flag modifications to invoices that could indicate tampering
Alert your team to suspicious routing number changes and banking information updates that could redirect payments

Human error mitigation

Replace error-prone manual verification with automation that detects and prevents mistakes.

Catch costly clerical errors before they impact your books with automated validation
Identify duplicate invoices to prevent double payments that drain your resources
Highlight variances from previous invoices with the same vendor, ensuring consistency and preventing mistakes

Enhanced compliance protection

Meet regulatory compliance requirements and mitigate risk with continuous monitoring that keeps your organization protected.

Ensure compliance with every coded invoice and payment through automated vendor verification
Protect your company from bad actors with continuous monitoring against 6,000+ global watchlists
Automatically validate vendor TINs and identify discrepancies in legal names and addresses

Automated tax validation

Eliminate tax compliance headaches with intelligent verification that ensures you're always audit-ready.

Verify TIN, EIN, SSN, and ITIN numbers instantly against IRS databases to ensure tax compliance
Streamline tax document collection with automated requests that chase vendors so you don't have to
Automatically place suspicious vendors on compliance hold until verification is complete

Approval Workflows Two Column Content Frame

Enterprise-grade approval workflows

Implement sophisticated financial controls without creating process bottlenecks or delaying critical payments.

Implement approval rules based on departments, GL accounts, and dollar thresholds
Ensure every payment follows your documented control procedures with automated approval routing
Build auditor confidence with complete tracking and transparency for every transaction