Putting the AP in hAPpy
by Debra R Richardson
A weekly podcast providing fraud prevention and vendor setup training to protect the vendor master file. Immediate takeaways with actionable steps you can implement today into your vendor onboarding and maintenance process to reduce payment fraud, regulatory fines and bad vendor data. Great tips for the Accounts Payable and Procurement teams to clean-up their vendor data, clean-up their vendor processes so that they can pay the right vendor.
Episodes
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Episode 410: Don’t Make It Easy For Fraudsters: User Built AI Agents Go Off Script With Jon Odalen
Send us Fan Mail What happens when the AI agent you built to save time starts doing things you never authorized? In this episode, Jon Odalen and I explore how user-built AI agents can expose vendor PII, hand data to the wrong people that may unintentionally make it available for fraudulent use....
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Episode 409: Don’t Make It Easy For Lazy Fraudsters: Check The Email Address Domain Of Change Requests
Send us Fan Mail Fraudsters continue to evolve but there are still lazy fraudsters that keep using the same tactics to divert vendor payments, because they keep working. Keep listening. Check out my website training.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques,...
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Episode 408: Don’t Make It Easy For Fraudsters: Is Your Vendor Process Ready for 2027 Nacha ACH Rules?
Send us Fan Mail How confident are you that your current vendor process can avoid tomorrow’s fraud? Without a controlled vendor add and change process to avoid fraud, two upcoming Nacha rule changes will expose your organization to increased financial losses and heightened identity theft risks....
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Episode 407: Don’t Make It Easy For Them: 6 Steps To Eliminate Duplicate Vendors
Send us Fan Mail Duplicate vendors can lead to internal and external fraud. Here is how to eliminate duplicate vendors in the vendor master file, how to prevent them in the first place, and which vendors I’ve seen that always have duplicates. Keep listening. Check out my website...
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Episode 406: Don’t Make It Easy For Fraudsters - A Free IRS Tool To Avoid Paying A Fake Charity
Send us Fan Mail You may know about the TIN Match tool provided by the IRS, but do you know about the other free tool you should be using to validate tax-exempt organizations? Keep listening. Check out my website training.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication…
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Episode 405: Can Video Conference Calls Verify Vendor Remittance Changes?
Send us Fan Mail We all know that a confirmation phone call for vendor remittance changes is a standard control to avoid payment fraud. Anyone who has ever performed that duty knows how frustrating it can be to reach some vendors. One subscriber asked if they could use a video conferencing…
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Episode 404: Audit Revealed 5 Missed Chances To Contain A Fraudulent Payment & Lessons Learned
Send us Fan Mail From process failures to managers covering up what was really going on, here are 5 missed chances a fraudulent payment could have been stopped or contained. Plus, what lessons you can take so the same thing does not happen at your organization. Keep listening. Check out my…
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Episode 403: Do Nacha ACH Operating Rules Really Apply To Our Organization? Ask These 6 Questions
Send us Fan Mail As team members that handle vendor data or vendor payments you have a lot on your plate, and we don’t have time to waste on a new compliance requirement that does not apply to our organization. Could that be the case with some Nacha ACH operating rules? Keep listening. Check out…
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Episode 402: Don't Celebrate Yet: What Failed Fraud Attempts Reveal About What’s Coming Next and What You Should NOT Do
Send us Fan Mail Treat every failed fraud attempt as a learning opportunity, not just a close call before the next attack is successful. The controls used to block that first fraud attempt, turn into evolved fraudster tactics when they attack your organization again – especially if you do one…
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Episode 401: The IRS FIRE System’s Final Chapter: What 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC Filers Can Still File and When
Send us Fan Mail There is still time to process tax reporting files in the IRS FIRE system. For 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC filers, if you want to know what you can file and the deadline you need to file before the FIRE system is retired…. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com…
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Episode 400: Employee Makes $6M From $15M in Stolen Funds. Do They Get To Keep It?
Send us Fan Mail An internal employee stole close to $15M from Bridgestone over 4 years and through investments, made and additional $6M. Did they get to keep it and the way the internal fraudster was caught after they left the company. And what question should you ask of your vendor process?…
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Episode 399: 11 Signs It’s Time To Clean Your Vendor Master File
Send us Fan Mail If these 11 things are happening, they are signs it’s time to review the data in your vendor master file. What are the 11 signs? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best...
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Episode 398: Do You Manage The Vendor Process? Start Here to Build Controls, Manage Risk and Maintain Accurate Vendor Data
Send us Fan Mail Being a Vendor Process Manager is a little like being a referee, detective, and data janitor all at once. In this episode, we'll cover the key priorities that help you reduce risk, improve compliance, and clean up vendor chaos. Keep listening. Check out my website...
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Episode 397: 4 Reasons Why This Statement “My Accounting System Catches Duplicates” Is Wrong
Send us Fan Mail If you think you don’t have to worry about duplicate vendors because your Accounting System or ERP catches them – just know – that you probably have duplicate vendors. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication...
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Episode 396: Build a Fraud Response Plan So You Know What To Do If A Fraudulent Payment Happens – In 5 Steps
Send us Fan Mail Do you and your team know what you need to do if there is a fraudulent payment? If you want the five steps that are probably not in your IT team’s fraud response plan…… Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication...
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Episode 395: Your Vendor’s Validations Were Successful - So Why Could It Still Be Fraud?
Send us Fan Mail Many organizations have as part of the vendor validation process to verify vendor’s information against state business registrations, IRS TIN Match records, and bank records. If validations are successful that information is trusted and payments are made. Fraudsters are now…
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Episode 394: Your Vendor’s Bank Routing Numbers Do Change – 3 Ways You Find Out Before Nacha Fines or Returned Payments
Send us Fan Mail Banks merge, get acquired or fail – often. This is not something your vendor normally makes their clients aware of, so if you want three ways to find out before fines or returned payments….. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help…
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Episode 393: 5 Reasons to Establish a Vendor Process Audit
Send us Fan Mail Organizations put processes in place when adding new vendors and changing existing vendor information to avoid fraud, regulatory fines and bad vendor data. But are they being followed? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing...
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Episode 392: Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule Compliance for Non-Consumer Originators - Now Everyone Must Comply
Send us Fan Mail Phase 2 of the Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule for ACH initiators is here and now everyone has to comply. What are the requirements and are you ready? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal...
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Episode 391: An Article on the Deepfake CEO Call Confirms Why Cybersecurity Awareness Training Is Not Good Enough for AP / Vendor Teams
Send us Fan Mail An article outlines what’s wrong with traditional cybersecurity awareness training against today’s fraudsters but misses the mark on the resolution to evolving fraudster tactics. Let’s fill-in the gaps. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need…
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Episode 390: Don’t Miss The August 1st Deadline for Filing 1099 Corrections & 2 Ways To Avoid IRS Penalties
Send us Fan Mail The August 1st deadline for filing 1099 corrections is closer than you think—and missing it could cost your company in IRS penalties. In this episode, I’m breaking down which errors demand immediate correction, which ones may not, and the two options to reduce or avoid…
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Episode 389: The Profile of an Internal Fraudster and 8 Behavioral Red Flags To Watch Out For According to the ACFE
Send us Fan Mail According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) after studying 2,402 cases that led to $3.4 Billion in losses across in 143 countries and territories, they have both the profile of an internal fraudster and 8 behavioral red flags to look for. Not to mention the…
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Episode 388: hAPpy About the New IRS Draft W-9 Form and How to Solve An Existing Name/TIN Issue
Send us Fan Mail Finally – some great news from the IRS of all places. Yes there is a new IRS Draft W-9 form and it’s good for the vendor team. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best...
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Episode 387: What Agentic AI Should Not Do When Looking For Red Flags in Emails
Send us Fan Mail Agentic AI in email can be the difference between making a fraudulent payment and catching the payment fraud before the request moves past email. As with all tools, there are activities that require a human. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you…
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Episode 386: Use AI Tools To Detect Red-Flags in Emails Requesting Vendor Bank Changes
Send us Fan Mail What if you had not only had second set of eyes to review a vendor email to make sure there are no red flags in when there is a request to change banking, but also to check for this new fraudster trend to pass your confirmation call? Keep listening. Check out my website...
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Episode 385: Use An Approval Workflow For Vendor Record Activity And Tips If It’s Not Automated
Send us Fan Mail Approval workflows for vendor adds and changes can help to reduce payment fraud and avoidable errors in vendor data. For why to do it and how to do it if your system does not support approval workflows…… Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need…
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Episode 384: Why You Should Add Contact Email Validation to Your Vendor Master File Clean-Up Process
Send us Fan Mail How good are your email addresses in your vendor master file? Are they still valid? Are they fraudulent? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and best practices to reduce the...
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Episode 383: 30 System Functionalities Vendor Team Members Should Know But They Don’t
Send us Fan Mail Are you and your team members fully trained on the accounting system or ERP as needed to perform their jobs? If you answered no, or “huh?” how would you do on a self-assessment? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing...
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Episode 382: 3 Facts About The IRS CP2100 Notification You May Be Receiving In April
Send us Fan Mail Around April of every year right after the tax filing season for 1099s and 1042s, just when you think you are done with IRS tasks for now, you receive an IRS CP2100 notification…now what… Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing...
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Episode 381: 5 Reasons Why Annual VMF Clean-Ups Fail in 2026 And How Often It Should Be Done
Send us Fan Mail Around April of every year right after the tax filing season for 1099s and 1042s, the vendor teams definitely know they have some issues with their vendor data. If you clean your vendor master file only once per year – that could be the problem. Keep listening. Check out my…
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Episode 380: A Fraud Prevention Strategy From A 1982 Film To Avoid Deepfakes
Send us Fan Mail This fraud prevention strategy appeared in a 1982 film with Robert De Niro and still works today to avoid deepfakes that lead to B2B payment fraud. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal...
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Episode 379: Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule Compliance for Non-Consumer Originators > Determining High Risk Vendors
Send us Fan Mail Phase 1 of the Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rule for ACH initiators is here. Part of the rule requires that you have a risk-based approach, but what criteria can you use to determine risk for your vendors? In this episode we’ll talk about three approaches to classify your vendors based...
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Episode 378: 3 Reasons Why I Don’t Recommend ACH Prenotifications To Avoid Payment Fraud Or For Nacha Fraud Monitoring Compliance
Send us Fan Mail You may already be sending pre-notes when vendors submit banking for an ACH payment method, or maybe you’re thinking about it as a way to comply with the upcoming Nacha rule. Here’s why pre-notes don’t help to prevent fraud and are not recommended for Nacha compliance. Keep...
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Episode 377: Nacha’s ACH Fraud Monitoring Rule: Is the Confirmation Call You’re Already Doing Compliant?
Send us Fan Mail If you’re already performing the confirmation call for vendor changes – are you already compliant with the upcoming Nacha ACH fraud monitoring rule with a March 20, 2026 deadline? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing...
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Episode 376: March 2026 Deadline: Nacha Rules Impacting Vendor Payments
Send us Fan Mail Nacha rules – just keep coming. If you are involved in the vendor process, there are two Nacha rules with a compliance deadline of March 20, 2026. So, if you haven’t heard of them yet or have and are not quite sure what they are, here is where you can go to get more information....
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Episode 375: A Factor in Reducing IRS Penalties - Handling Returned 1099’s and 1042’s
Send us Fan Mail So you sent recipient statements to your vendors for Tax Year 2025 – and some came back. Here is how to handle them to reduce penalties from the IRS. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal...
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Episode 374: 3 Reasons Why It’s Better to Use IRIS and Not FIRE for 1042-S Forms For TY 2025
Send us Fan Mail If you paid foreign vendors reportable income in TY 2025 and want to file the 1042-S forms using one of the two IRS free e-Filing tools – this episode will break down three differences between the FIRE and IRIS that might make your decision easier. Keep listening. Check out my...
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Episode 373: TY 2025 Handling Corrections For IRS Forms 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC and 1042-S
Send us Fan Mail Congrats! You made the deadline for sending 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC recipient statements to your vendors and the related IRS tax filing deadline for the 1099-NEC. Then your phone starts ringing with vendors, and now you have corrections to what you reported. Or your organization…
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Episode 372: Running Late on 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC Reporting? File These IRS Extensions To Prevent Penalties
Send us Fan Mail What do you do if it’s getting down to the wire to be in compliance with the IRS deadlines for sending vendors their 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC or filing both with the IRS, and you know you are going to be late. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need...
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Episode 371: TY 2025: CF/SF Participation? 2 Reasons You Still Check State Requirements & A Process to Perform
Send us Fan Mail Don’t forget to still do your tax reporting research at the State level, even if that State participates in the Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) Program. For two reasons you still need to check and a process to do it…. Keep listening. Check out my website...
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Episode 370: At Least 5 Questions to Ask Now In Preparation for the Publication of the IRS Draft Form W-9
Send us Fan Mail My head is starting to hurt as clients, subscribers and others reach out to ask about the impact of the IRS draft form W-9. More and more questions are arising and I have 5 that you should start thinking about…. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you...
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Episode 369: Debra R Richardson and Jason Dinesen Discuss the Draft Version of the IRS Form W-9 And What It May Require for Vendor Teams
Send us Fan Mail My guest is Jason Dinesen, and he and I discuss the IRS draft version of the IRS Form W9 with a revision date of January 2026. We address questions such as will it really be published in January? What you should do before it’s published, what you should do after, including why…
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Episode 368: Holiday Out-of-Office Messages - A Fraudster’s Favorite Gift – Get 4 Best Practices to Avoid Payment Fraud When You're Out
Send us Fan Mail Holidays are the best times for cybercriminals – they know we are busy trying to get out of the office and all they need is the information we typically include in an Out of Office automated email reply. Don’t give it to them – use these best practices to not let your absence…
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Episode 367: Top 5 Things to Know or Do Now for 1099-NEC/MISC and 1042-S Tax Reporting for TY 2025
Send us Fan Mail If you are getting ready for tax reporting for Tax Year 2025 and need the important things to know or do regarding the 1099-NEC, the 1099-MISC and the 1042-S – this podcast episode is for you! Starting with two that you don’t have to worry about (yet) then three that you do. Keep...
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Episode 366: Reduce Payment Fraud Risk By Outsourcing Your Vendor Payments
Send us Fan Mail As you are busy with year-end and increased volumes of vendor adds and changes – you may be ready to reduce your vendor process activities by outsourcing your vendor payments next year, with a bonus of reducing payment fraud risk. How? Keep listening. Check out my website...
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Episode 365: Build Your Checklist to Avoid Global Payment Fraud At Busy Year-End - In 5 Steps
Send us Fan Mail Get ready for busy year end by building a checklist to avoid global payment fraud. Don’t forget to download your free checklist template! Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication techniques, internal controls, and...
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Episode 364: Question From A Vendor Process Team Member > What Are the Best Ways To Verify Email Addresses?
Send us Fan Mail As Accounts Payable or Vendor team members we know that fraud risk is high in email. Is there a way that you can tell which email addresses are risky? And is that sufficient to manage fraud risk? Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help...
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Episode 363: 4 Tasks To Do Now To Get Your Vendor Data Ready For Tax Reporting Season
Send us Fan Mail It’s time to start vendor data tasks that will make tax reporting season easier if you do them now! What are they? And listen to the end for a bonus task that may reduce your vendor inquiries….. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help...
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Episode 362: 6 Ways The IRS Can Reach Out To You and How To Tell It’s Not A Fraudster
Send us Fan Mail When will the IRS contact you? How will they contact you? Is it really them? To hear how and when they will reach out and how you can tell if you are communicating with a fraudster…. Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing...
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Episode 361: Kubikle - Cybercrime's Office Life
Send us Fan Mail It’s almost the end of the 25th annual October Cybersecurity Awareness Month and if you haven’t heard of or watched the cybercriminal version of “The Office” it’s time! Keep listening. Check out my website www.debrarrichardson.com if you need help implementing authentication...
About this show
A weekly podcast providing fraud prevention and vendor setup training to protect the vendor master file. Immediate takeaways with actionable steps you can implement today into your vendor onboarding and maintenance process to reduce payment fraud, regulatory fines and bad vendor data. Great tips for the Accounts Payable and Procurement teams to clean-up their vendor data, clean-up their vendor processes so that they can pay the right vendor.
Hosted by
Debra R Richardson
Categories