Fight fraud with digital payments

What can you do to protect your company against fraud? Start by securing your computer systems and educating employees about phishing, business email compromise, and other schemes. Most importantly, shift your payment methods from paper-based to digital.

Checks remain the number-one source of fraud, tied to 74% of scam attempts.^{Disclosure 1} Electronic payments protect your business accounts with built-in controls and support internal approval procedures that generate reports and create audit trails. With electronic transactions, customers can make payments easily, vendors will receive funds quickly, and the risk of fraud is reduced for everyone involved.

Prevent fraud by implementing digital payments through these steps:

Make payments online.

Electronic transactions reduce paper-based fraud. You’ll have more control over payables like suppliers, payroll, and taxes, as well as insight into your disbursement trends.

Nearly 93% of American workers are paid through direct deposit,^{Disclosure 2} so your business may already be using electronic payments for payroll. If not, ask your banker how Truist can help you set up online payroll.

Use alerts to monitor online activity.

With online banking, you can view all your account activity and look into areas that may need attention at any time. Set up electronic alerts through email and/or text to monitor your deposits, ACH and wire transactions, and payments higher than a specified amount. Receiving digital alerts provides you with a report that has all the information you need to quickly take action and protect your account. You’ll also know exactly what time your payments reach vendors and when customer payments hit your account.

Use a card to make payments.

Track and control your expenses by issuing business credit cards or purchasing cards, which eliminate reimbursement and provide you with a full record of your expense transactions.

You’ll still need to document any expenses charged to your account and reconcile them against your bank statements, but the process requires less bookkeeping and protects your company from fraudulent invoices. Business credit cards can also extend payment terms and offer additional cash flow when you need it.

Accepting debit and credit cards for customer payments removes the risk of fraud from cash and checks, makes funds available in your account sooner, and provides your customers with online transaction documentation.

Implement spending controls.

With card payment systems, you can set purchase limits, assign appropriate spending authority to different user levels, and restrict charges by merchant category. Link your online accounts to your bookkeeping software, which should have its own built-in controls and audit tracking that guard against fraud.