Independent AP Vendor Audit

There are hundreds of AP vendors in your ERP.
How many of them are fraudsters?

Most Corporate Controllers inherit a vendor listing of 300 to 800 suppliers — set up over years, by people who've since moved on. The moment you approve a payment run, every one of them is your responsibility, and a single altered bank detail or phantom vendor is invisible in the system until the money is gone. We confirm each vendor by phone, before a dollar moves. Don't lose your job because of someone else's mistake. Hire PVA to audit your AP vendor listing and rest easy.

Audit my first 5 AP vendors — free → Get the brief for your boss →

No software No integration A real person, every time

Run the math

The audit is a line item. The wire is a disaster.

Weigh the two side by side — it’s the whole case in one comparison.

An AP vendor audit

A known, one-time cost.

Independent specialists confirm the vendors already in your system by phone — banking details, ownership, legitimacy. You keep a written record on every one. Budgeted, predictable, and a small fraction of a single payment.

Prioritized by risk — highest-spend and newest first
One documented, defensible record
Starts with 5 vendors, free

One fraudulent wire

~$129,000 — often far more.

The full payment leaves and is almost never recovered — the reported average for a single business-email-compromise loss. Then the cost that never shows on the ledger: the confidence your owners and board place in whoever approved it. That trust doesn’t come back with the money.

The opportunity cost

You're a treasurer, not an assistant.

Treasury runs lean — often a team of one. Every hour you spend sourcing vendors’ phone numbers and chasing callbacks is an hour stolen from liquidity, credit-agreement compliance, and cash forecasting — the work only you can do, and the work you’re actually paid for. Verifying vendors is essential. It is not the highest use of a six-figure treasury professional’s day. We make the calls. You keep your focus where the company needs it. That’s why you hire PVA.

What you’re paid for

✓ Liquidity & cash management

✓ Covenant & credit-agreement compliance

✓ Forecasting & funding decisions

What DIY verification steals

✗ Hours sourcing vendor phone numbers

✗ Chasing callbacks that go to voicemail

✗ Documenting every check by hand

Who it's for

You're probably here for one of these reasons.

Different door, same room. Whichever one is you, the exposure is identical — and so is the fix.

01 / INHERITED

You inherited the AP listing.

You're new in the role, staring at a vendor master file you didn't build. You have no idea which payment details were ever verified, or what controls existed before you.

And you're liable the moment you approve the first payment.

02 / FLAGGED

Your auditors flagged you.

An audit finding says your team can't prove vendor payment instructions are verified. You need a documented, independent control to close it — not a promise to be more careful.

A finding with a deadline attached.

03 / BURNED

You've seen it happen.

You've been hit — or watched a peer get hit — by a payment that sailed to a fraudster on instructions that looked completely legitimate. You're done leaving it to chance.

Once is all it takes.

Whichever one is you, we do the same thing: independently confirm every vendor is who they say they are — before the money moves.

The exposure you sign off on

76%

of U.S. organizations faced attempted or actual payments fraud last year — the risk is now the rule, not the exception.

$2.77B

reported lost to business email compromise in 2024 alone — and most incidents are never reported.

~$129K

the average reported loss from a single incident. One prevented payment covers a full verification many times over.

Sources: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Internet Crime Report ($2.77B across 21,442 reported BEC complaints); AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey.

Bring it to your leadership

You see the risk. Here’s how to get your owners to act on it.

You don’t need budget authority to start — you need a yes. So we built the case for you.

One page, in the language owners and partners respond to: the exposure sitting in your vendor file, what a single fraudulent wire really costs, and the free 5-vendor pilot as the low-risk first step. Forward it up the chain, or drop it in front of the next finance meeting — the case is already made for you.

→ The risk, in numbers your leadership will recognize
→ The ask: five vendors, verified free, no commitment
→ What it costs them: about 15 minutes of AP’s time

Download the 1-page brief (PDF) →

Prefer we walk your leadership through it? Call (214) 865-9426.

Preview of the one-page vendor-fraud brief for leadership

Free · 1 page

The model

Audited once. Covered continuously — only if you want.

The core engagement is simple: we verify your entire file once. After that, staying protected against new vendors and "we've updated our banking details" requests is an option you can turn on whenever you like — never required, never a lock-in.

The core engagement — Baseline Audit

We verify the entire file you inherited.

One-time · scoped to your list

We independently source a contact for every vendor, confirm their banking details by phone, and hand you one documented record covering your whole AP file — a clean baseline, and the exact audit control you can put in front of a CFO, a board, or an external auditor.

Every vendor confirmed by a real person
A written verification record for the full list
A defensible control — not a promise

Optional — Ongoing Verification

Want to stay covered? We're here — no pressure.

Flat monthly · optional · cancel anytime

Entirely optional. If you'd like protection to continue after the audit, forward us new vendors and bank-change requests as they land and we'll verify each one before you pay — the exact moments fraud slips through. One flat fee, cancel whenever; turn it on only if it earns its keep.

New vendors verified before their first payment
Every "please update our bank details" request checked
Your audit trail stays current, month after month

You forward it

Email us a vendor's payment instructions — new, or a change request. No portal to learn, no integration.

We source & call

We find the vendor's real contact independently — never the number on the invoice — and a person confirms by phone.

You get the record

A documented confirm-or-flag comes back before you pay, and lands in your running audit trail.

Why us

A database can't call the vendor back.

There are three ways to close this gap. Two of them leave the work — and the liability — sitting on your desk.

Verification software

You buy the platform, integrate it, and run it yourself
Annual contract, enterprise price tag
Matches a database — which a fraudster's real account can quietly sit inside

Hiring in-house

A full salary spent on slow, repetitive callbacks
Pulls a capable person off higher-value work
You still own the process, the training, and the risk

Payment Verification Associates

No software, no integration, no annual lock-in
A real person calls an independently sourced contact
A documented record for every check — starting with 5 free

Pricing

Start free. Scale into protection.

Prove it on your own vendors first. Then choose the baseline, the ongoing coverage, or both.

Start here

Pilot

Free / first 5 vendors

See the whole process on your own list before committing to anything.

No cost, no commitment
A full verification record for each vendor
See exactly what a flag looks like

Request pilot →

Baseline Audit

Scoped / to your file

A one-time, complete verification of your current AP file — your clean baseline and audit control.

Every vendor on the list, verified
One documented, defensible record
Quoted after a short scoping call

Book a scoping call →

Ongoing Verification · Optional

Flat / per month

Completely optional. If you want it, we verify every new vendor and change request as they come — before you pay.

Predictable, one flat monthly fee
New vendors & bank-change requests
Your audit trail, always current

Talk it through →