How Sage Intacct ERP Can Help Fight Internal Fraud
Discover, in this two-part series, how Intacct ERP can help fight both internal and external threats of fraud at your business, in Florida or any other state.
Fraud In Florida
Florida is fascinatingly fraught with fraud. (Ha – say that three times fast!) In all seriousness though, the southern part of the state has actually become known as “The Fraud Capital of the World,” according to the Miami Herald. To back that up that claim, the Federal Trade Commission reported that Florida has the highest per capita rate of reported fraud in the country.
Obviously, this can be very disconcerting for Florida-based business owners. So how does one mitigate the threats, in Florida or anywhere else for that matter? We are going to share our thoughts on how Sage Intacct ERP can help. Part one of this series will review the offsets from an internal threat perspective and part two will discuss mitigation of external threats.
Part 1 – Fighting off internal fraud threats with Sage Intacct
According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, insiders had cost organizations nearly $3.7 trillion (globally) in 2014. Insiders! You are well aware that control has to be given up to your internal teams in order to get work done, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose peace of mind too. Here are some ways to fight the good fight:
Install Sage Intacct
No kidding, right? Hear me out… If you work with a number of disparate systems that don’t sync or work cohesively together, then there are opportunities for people to take advantage. Antiquated, disparate systems limit your ability to monitor transactions across all systems. With Sage Intacct, you have one system that handles multiple financial tasks across multiple applications. It provides one viewpoint to monitor all of these activities. This increased visibility enables business owners to establish a baseline of what secure processing looks like and as a result, can help them readily identify inconsistencies that could be threats to the organization.
Set up security clearances
Once you have Sage Intacct installed, you can easily control access to the critical data that specific users require. User-based security, role-based security, least privilege access, as well as other special clearances can be set up and utilized for each user. Sage Intacct makes the process effortless and it helps ensure that only the right people have the right access to the right information.
Audit your audit trail
Sage Intacct has a full-time audit trail that captures all transactional information. Also, an audit log report can be used to monitor each user’s activity. It identifies their actions, including the creation, reading, updating, and deletion of objects. Of course, you can also set up thresholds for transactions, rules that ensure certain transactions are posted to the correct accounts, as well as a documented approval processes for transactions that require them. Having a strong set of rules and a strong audit trail in place can quickly hinder and identify any users attempting to take advantage.
Purge the paper
According to an article in the South Florida Business Journal, a SunTrust bank survey found that the “No. 1 source of fraud” was checks. Today, processing payments on paper creates a huge vulnerability for any organization. With Vendor Payment Services, your fraud risk is greatly reduced. You no longer have to keep stacks of blank checks on hand or in inventory. Even better, your bank account information is transmitted only once (during account setup) and is protected via SSL and packet encryption. Your account information is never transmitted when sending checks to print, making it much safer than processing and mailing checks yourself.
When it comes to fraud, the internal perspectives and solutions I’ve outlined above are just the tip of the iceberg. Many businesses have more specialized needs and requirements when it comes to handling their financials. The beauty of Sage Intacct is that it can handle those needs with ease, with no special coding required.
Still not sure if Sage Intacct can conquer your fear of fraud? Stay tuned for part two of this series to gain a perspective of how Sage Intacct can help from an external standpoint.