- Payables follow a five-step chain: intake, coding, approval, scheduling, payment.
- Duplicate payments are more common than fraud and easier to prevent.
- Bank detail changes are the highest-risk event in the whole process.
- Segregation of duties matters more than any single software feature.
- Payment timing is a working-capital decision, not an administrative one.
The payables chain
Every invoice follows the same path, whether it is handled by software or by a person with a spreadsheet: it arrives, it is coded to an account and cost centre, someone with authority approves it, it is scheduled, and it is paid.
Automation compresses each step but does not remove any of them. When payables goes wrong, it is almost always because a step was skipped rather than because a tool was missing.
Where time and risk actually sit
Intake
Invoices arrive by email, portal or post. A single intake address prevents invoices living in individual inboxes.
Coding
Account, cost centre, tax treatment and purchase order matching where one exists. Recurring vendors should be coded by rule.
Approval
Routed by amount and cost centre. The approver must be someone who can genuinely confirm the goods or services were received.
Schedule and pay
Payment date chosen against terms and cash position, then executed on the appropriate rail.
Controls that prevent the expensive mistakes
Payment fraud in companies rarely involves anything technically sophisticated. It usually involves an email asking for bank details to be updated, sent at a busy moment to someone who wants to be helpful.
The countermeasure is procedural rather than technical, and it works: never change payment details based on an inbound message alone.
- Verify every bank detail change by calling a known contact on a previously held number.
- Separate the person who adds a vendor from the person who approves the payment.
- Require two people for payments above a threshold.
- Match invoice numbers automatically to block duplicates before scheduling.
- Review the vendor master list periodically for entries nobody recognises.
Payment timing as a working-capital decision
| Approach | Effect on cash | Effect on the vendor relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Pay on receipt | Worst for working capital | Excellent, occasionally unnecessary |
| Pay on terms | Predictable and neutral | Expected and unremarkable |
| Take early payment discount | Costs cash now, saves money overall | Positive, if the discount is genuine |
| Pay late deliberately | Improves cash short term | Damaging, and it compounds |
Terms are commercial. Negotiating longer terms up front is almost always better than paying late afterwards.
When to use a card instead of an invoice
Small, recurring, non-negotiated purchases usually belong on a card: the administrative overhead of an invoice is out of proportion to the amount. Anything contracted, material or requiring specific terms belongs in payables.
A clear rule prevents the same vendor arriving through both routes, which is one of the more common causes of duplicate payment.
- Card: subscriptions, cloud usage, small equipment, ad platforms.
- Payables: contracted services, rent, professional fees, large equipment, anything with a purchase order.
- Never both for the same vendor without a documented reason.
Frequently asked questions
Automatic invoice-number matching catches most, and a rule preventing the same vendor being paid by both card and invoice catches the rest. Duplicates are far more common than fraud and much easier to eliminate.
Someone who can genuinely confirm the goods or services were received, not simply someone senior. Approval by people with no visibility of delivery is a control that exists on paper only.
Fraudulent changes to vendor bank details, typically requested by email. Verify every change by voice on a previously known number, without exception and regardless of how urgent the request appears.
Yes. A single chart of accounts and consistent cost centres across both is what makes reporting comparable and close manageable. See accounting.
Keep reading
Sources and further reading
Every factual statement on this page is checked against primary documentation. Terms change frequently, so confirm details with the provider before acting on them.
- Brex — official website Primary source for current product names, availability and terms.
- Brex Support Center Official help documentation, including account access and card administration topics.
- FASB Accounting Standards Codification Reference point for accrual, expense recognition and close-process statements.
- IRS Publication 463 — travel, gift and car expenses Used for statements about expense substantiation and record keeping in the United States.
- Nacha — ACH Network rules and resources Used for statements about ACH timing and payment rails.