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Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, ISO 37001:2016 (Anti-Bribery Management Stystems) Awareness (54-slide PowerPoint presentation). ISO 37001:2016 is an international standard designed and formulated to help organizations implement a robust Anti-Bribery Management Systems (ABMS). The standard specifies a series of measures to help organizations prevent, detect and address bribery. It is designed to help your [read more]
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How do you know the invoice in your inbox is real?
In 2025, accounts payable (AP) fraud is faster, smarter, and harder to detect than ever. All it takes is a fake vendor profile, a slightly altered invoice, or a duplicated bank detail, and your company could be out tens of thousands before anyone notices.
From deepfake documents to synthetic vendors, fraudsters are exploiting weak links in payment workflows. That’s why more finance teams are shifting from reactive audits to proactive, real-time fraud detection built into their AP process.
Today’s best tools combine AI, metadata forensics, and anomaly detection to catch document fraud before payment, not after the damage is done.
In this guide, you’ll learn what AP fraud looks like in 2025, how AI detects it, and which five tools are best for preventing it.
Accounts payable fraud isn’t new, but in 2025, it’s more automated, scalable, and convincing than ever.
Instead of crude invoice scams or manual errors, today’s fraud often involves AI-generated documents, fake vendor setups, or payment redirection through subtly altered bank details. Fraudsters don’t need access to your systems; they just need a moment of trust in your process.
These attacks don’t just target enterprise giants. SMBs are often hit harder, with fewer internal controls and manual processes that leave room for error.
That’s why modern AP teams are looking beyond basic approval chains and embracing fraud detection that works in real time, before money leaves the system.
Catching fraud in accounts payable used to mean slow, manual reviews: double-checking invoice fields, confirming vendor details by phone, or spotting red flags by gut feel. While those methods still matter, they’re no match for the volume and sophistication of today’s threats.
Manual checks can’t scale, and fraudsters know it.
Modern fraud detection tools use machine learning and document forensics to analyze every invoice in real time. Here’s what they bring to the table:
This isn’t about replacing people, it’s about giving them superpowers.
Instead of scanning for issues line by line, AP teams can focus on exceptions flagged by a system that never gets tired, never skips steps, and learns over time.
From invoice tampering to vendor fraud, today’s AP risks call for smarter tools, not just faster workflows. These five platforms help finance teams detect fraud before it reaches your general ledger.
Whether you’re looking for a full AP automation suite or a precision fraud detection layer, here are the best options in 2025.
Klippa DocHorizon is more than an OCR tool; it’s a full intelligent document processing (IDP) engine with advanced document fraud detection built in.
For AP teams, it helps detect forged invoices, duplicate submissions, and tampered bank details at the moment of upload. Instead of relying on after-the-fact reviews, DocHorizon uses layered AI techniques to scan for anomalies in both document content and structure instantly.
Strengths:
Klippa is built to integrate quietly into your existing AP workflows and protect every document that flows through them.
AvidXchange is an enterprise-grade AP automation platform that helps streamline payments, approvals, and vendor management. While its core focus is automation, it includes fraud control measures like payment verification workflows, approval routing, and audit trails.
Strengths:
AvidXchange is ideal for companies that want one platform to handle both fraud detection and day-to-day AP tasks at scale.
Stampli makes invoice approvals more transparent and secure. It embeds fraud detection into the collaboration process so every invoice gets the right scrutiny at the right time.
By centralizing conversations, approvals, and documentation, Stampli reduces the risk of invoice tampering, impersonation, or misrouted payments.
Strengths:
Stampli works well for companies that want tight internal controls without slowing down AP.
Eftsure focuses on one problem: making sure you only pay who you actually owe.
It verifies vendor bank details in real time, cross-checking against independent data sources and alerting teams to mismatches. It’s a powerful fraud prevention layer for any AP team that wants to stop payment redirection and business email compromise.
Strengths:
Eftsure is especially valuable for organizations managing a high volume of external vendors.
SEON isn’t an AP tool by design, but its fraud scoring engine is useful for verifying digital identities, particularly for vendor onboarding or payment authorization.
It builds a risk profile based on email, phone, IP, and domain signals, helping you flag suspicious vendors before money ever leaves your account.
Strengths:
SEON fits best as a fraud layer on top of your AP system, especially if vendor risk is a concern.
The best fraud detection software isn’t just about features, it’s about fit. Your choice depends on how your AP team works, what risks you face, and how much control you need over payments.
Here’s how to evaluate your options across six essential criteria:
Look for software that connects easily to your ERP or accounting tools. Robust APIs and native integrations make fraud detection seamless.
Choose a platform that can grow with your invoice volume and team size: from small business to enterprise.
AI should do more than OCR. It should flag subtle tampering, duplicates, and anomalies that manual reviews miss.
The best tools validate metadata, detect duplicates, and analyze invoices for signs of manipulation.
Make sure the platform is certified (e.g. ISO 27001, GDPR) and designed to handle sensitive financial data securely.
When a document is flagged, you need to know why and have support on hand to resolve it quickly.
Each of these categories helps clarify what you really need: full AP automation with built-in safeguards, or a fraud-focused layer that plugs into your stack.
Accounts payable fraud isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s a subtle change in a bank account number. A vendor that looks legitimate. An invoice that gets paid twice.
In 2025, the tools fraudsters use are faster and more convincing, but so are the tools designed to stop them.
Whether you choose an all-in-one AP platform like AvidXchange or Stampli, or a specialist tool like Eftsure or SEON, the goal is the same: detect risk before payment leaves your system.
For many teams, the ideal solution combines both: intelligent automation for invoice processing and real-time fraud detection that works quietly in the background.
That’s where platforms like Klippa DocHorizon come in, offering layered protection at the document level, right where most fraud starts.
The future of AP fraud prevention isn’t more paperwork or longer review cycles. It’s smarter systems, integrated checks, and a focus on prevention instead of damage control.
If you’re building a safer AP process this year, the right software isn’t just helpful; it’s essential!
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