Unmasking Hidden Financial Risks and How to Prevent Them
NetSuite is a powerful foundation for your organization’s financial operations, aiming to be a single, secure home for all your financial data. However, while NetSuite is a significant investment, realizing the full value requires further consideration, especially when it comes to Accounts Payable (AP). Relying solely on NetSuite’s built-in AP tools, or using non-native integrations, can surprisingly limit financial operations—and in an era of increasing risk and escalating fraud, the repercussions of limited financial insight can be serious.
The Rising Tide of Fraud and Why AP is a Prime Target
Fraud is on the rise, and your AP team is the number one target. The latest reports indicate a dramatic increase in business email compromise (BEC) attacks, where AP professionals are being targeted due to their access to financial information and bank accounts. The rise of generative AI is directly responsible for the increasing number and success rate of financial attacks, making fraud harder to spot with voice cloning, deepfake videos, and professionalized language.
Accounts payable professionals are particularly vulnerable due to their proximity to the financial controls of an organization. Common examples of BEC attacks include:
- Fake invoices are emailed from what appears to be an existing vendor.
- Fraudsters gaining access to a vendor’s email to send fraudulent requests to update bank account information, changing the banking information to their own account.
- Impersonating an executive (like a CEO) via email or text and requesting funds be sent to a specific location.
Beyond digital threats, check fraud also remains a common issue. Checks often present an easy opportunity for fraudsters due to limited oversight over check stock and a lack of a clear paper trail.
How Default NetSuite AP Processes Introduce Risks
While NetSuite offers a secure environment, its inherent security can be voided if organizations rely on third-party applications using integrations that keep financial data outside of NetSuite. This “connector-based” automation introduces several downsides:
- Increased likelihood of errors as employees are forced to toggle between NetSuite and a separate AP automation system that requires new training.
- Higher chances of security vulnerabilities because financial data is maintained outside of your NetSuite instance.
- Hidden costs due to maintenance requirements for integrations, which often break and require additional IT investment.
- Interrupted data flow, leading to unreliable and outdated financial information, which can negate the entire benefit of using a platform like NetSuite for accurate data.
Automation: The Key to Risk Reduction and Fraud Prevention in NetSuite
The good news is that automation, particularly NetSuite-native, or integrationless, solutions, are the answer to tightening financial controls and significantly reducing risk.
Here’s how automation strengthens your AP security:
- Eliminating Risky Email Correspondence: AP automation eliminates the need for back-and-forth email correspondence by moving processes into secure, automated systems, keeping your financial data safe.
- Direct Bank Integration: By utilizing an AP automation system built directly into your NetSuite instance, unsecured file transfers are no longer necessary. SquareWorks offers direct integration with your chosen bank, and financial information remains secure within your NetSuite instance.
- Strengthen Internal Controls: The process of automating financial operations forces teams to determine their own controls, creating a robust system for managing AP processes, which often don’t exist in manual environments. This includes:
- Automated Approvals: Redirect invoices for secondary approval automatically if they exceed a pre-determined PO threshold. Keeping approvals within NetSuite ensures a complete audit trail, where every step is documented. Approval rules can be configured to create complex approval matrixes and enforce the segregation of duties when creating payments to minimize fraud risk.
- Streamlined 3-Way Matching: Automation makes it significantly easier to track and match purchase orders, invoices, and receipts.
- Simplified Audit Preparedness: Increasing workloads have led to an increase in errors when AP teams must rely on manual efforts. Audits are then even more difficult and time-consuming to complete. With automation, financial records are organized and maintained with proper audit controls directly within your NetSuite instance, reducing the time, cost, and stress involved.
NetSuite provides a solid financial backbone to any growing organization, but the accounts payable functions it comes with may lack the level of sophistication necessary for many AP teams. Modern fraud prevention is especially tricky, and being proactive is the only way to protect your team. Choosing an integrationless AP automation solution means your employees can work within the NetSuite environment they already know, leveraging existing systems for a seamless experience, and ensuring all financial data remains secure.
It’s time to be proactive about your organization’s financial security. By automating your AP processes within NetSuite, you can transform AP from a manual, high-risk function into a strategic, secure, and efficient operation.
