XBert Type: Standard
Accounting Software: Xero, QuickBooks Online
Country Restriction: All supported countries
Risk Type: Fraud Risk
Business Function: Contacts
Overview
This XBert checks whether a supplier or other contact has been set up to be paid into a bank account that actually belongs to one of your employees. That is highly unusual and can be a sign of a fraud attempt, a data entry mistake, or a contact record being misused to process a reimbursement. Catching it early helps make sure payments reach the right person.
What it does
XBert compares the bank account saved against each contact (such as a supplier or customer) with the bank accounts saved against your active payroll employees. It ignores spacing when it compares the accounts, so it matches on the real account details rather than how they were typed. When a contact's bank account is the same as an active employee's, XBert raises this alert so you can check it before any money is paid out.
How it works
XBert takes the bank account details recorded on each contact and on each active employee and compares them, ignoring spacing. It raises an alert when a contact's bank account matches an active employee's bank account.
To avoid flagging the obvious case, XBert stays quiet when the contact and the employee are clearly the same person (for example, an employee set up as a contact to be reimbursed under their own name). Because this name check looks for an exact match, a contact that is really the same person can still be flagged if the name is written differently, for example with different spacing or capitalisation, a middle or maiden name, or a small typo. When that happens, confirm it is the same person and the alert is safe to resolve.
This check is part of XBert's proactive fraud detection. It does not record who changed the bank details or when, but you can review this yourself in your accounting software's contact activity log.
Example/Use Case
Bob has access to your accounting system and updates the contact record for supplier ACME Services, accidentally entering the bank account number belonging to employee Jessie. Later, Mike processes and approves a payment of $18,500 to ACME Services, which is deposited into Jessie's account. Although the system shows the bill as paid, ACME never receives the funds. The error is only discovered when ACME follows up, and the business now has to recover the payment and make a second transfer, possibly incurring a late fee or damaging the supplier relationship. This XBert would catch the issue before the payment was made.
Accounting software
This XBert runs on Xero and QuickBooks Online.
Which countries it supports
This XBert is available in all supported countries.
Processes
This XBert falls under the Cleanup business area and supports fraud prevention and payment accuracy. To resolve it:
Open the flagged contact record in your accounting software and review the bank account details.
Confirm the change is genuine by checking directly with the contact, and with the employee whose account it matches, before any payment is made.
If the bank account was entered in error, update the contact with the correct account details and keep a note of the correction.
Review your accounting software's contact activity log to see who made the change and when.
If the contact is in fact an employee being reimbursed, consider paying them through your payroll system instead of as a supplier, so employee and supplier records stay separate.
Once you have checked and corrected the details, mark the XBert as resolved.