Automating P2P Fraud Detection
with Data Analytics

Procure-to-Pay (P2P) is integral to an organization’s financial strength. It encompasses identifying a need, procuring the required goods/services, invoicing and payments. However, this process requires an integration of several functions and collaboration across various teams. As a result, there are often several challenges in data management and disruption of workflow that make it difficult to maintain compliance.
P2P fraud is a growing concern among global multinational companies with complex procurement processes. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in 2024 reported that organizations lose 5% of their revenue to fraud each year with occupational fraud costing companies nearly $200,000 per incident. Navigating numerous vendors and high transaction volume exposes an organization to fraudulent activities such as
  • Duplicate payments
  • Supplier collusion
  • Unauthorized purchases
  • Product substitution
  • Intellectual property infringement
  • Bid rigging
  • Conflict of interest
  • Theft or misuse of inventory
Due to the direct impact of P2P fraud on an organization’s operational efficiency and financial health, there is a growing movement towards automating processes such as invoice matching, approval workflows, and supplier management. By leveraging transformative technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning algorithms, and Data Analytics organizations can now proactively detect and prevent fraud from occurring.

Role of Data Analytics in Fraud Management

While it is nearly impossible to prevent fraud from occurring, AI, ML and data analytics are reshaping the P2P process through automation and continuous monitoring. This is especially beneficial in the P2P lifecycle by reducing manual errors and identifying anomalies in requisition forms, purchase orders, and invoices.

  1. Invoice Matching – This is a critical yet complex process that can benefit from AI tools such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
    • OCR scans and extracts data from invoices and directly matches the gathered data with those of purchase orders, receipts, and requisition requests. This eliminates the need for manual intervention and reduces data errors from occurring.
  2. Anomaly Detection – Machine Learning algorithms analyze past data to identify unusual patterns across multiple data sets and flag potential high-risk transactions and vendors for evaluation.
  3. Predictive Analytics – AI can analyze historical data pertaining to supplier behavior, transaction timing, geopolitical conditions, etc. to identify spending patterns, supply chain needs, demand patterns, market trends, and price fluctuation providing a pathway for organizations to plan their business execution.
  4. Due Diligence – By consolidating data from financial records, delivery histories, customer feedback, and market behavior, AI can track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and assign risk scores to suppliers. This process helps uncover any hidden conflicts of interest, monitor supplier compliance, avoid high-risk vendors, and optimize the procure to pay process.

Automating processes to reduce manual errors, streamlining workflow, and utilizing analytics to identify real-time errors are all shaping the procure-to-pay process, thereby reducing fraud. However, these steps are beneficial towards identifying fraud, fraud prevention requires a more wholistic approach that builds ethical anti-corrupt and anti-fraud culture.

Moving from Detection to Prevention

To gain a competitive edge in the market, organizations must build scalable predictive systems that detect fraud in real-time, strengthen supplier relations, and make operations systems resilient.

Steps to modernize your organization

Invest in data infrastructure: Ensure your HR, procurement, and finance systems generate clean, structured, transparent, and accessible data.

Partner with analytics experts: External providers such as konaAI can accelerate the development and deployment of fraud detection models by integrating multiple data sources (eg: ERP, procurement logs, and supplier data) to provide a more wholistic fraud detection framework.

Conduct ongoing training: Equip your teams with knowledge on industry compliance standards and methods to interpret analytics insights so they may take proactive measures in maintaining the organization’s ethos.

Build adaptive controls: Benefit from AI and Data Analytics to refine thresholds, rules, and policies based on analysis of historical data and evolving fraud tactics.

Talk to a konaAI Expert and Build a Smart Fraud Defense System!