22 Jun What Are Your Risks in Vendor Information Management?
Managing vendor information entails risk. The vendor master file is the key to vendor payments. Errors in the vendor master can lead to costly mistakes, and the master file is a prime target for fraud. There is also a risk of non-compliance with particular government tax, sanction and exclusion programs. Further, some of the vendor information, such as social security numbers and bank account numbers, is sensitive and subject to theft and exploitation. Policies, processes including internal controls, technical protocols and encryption, and staff awareness and understanding are all necessary to mitigate the risks. The breadth of vendor information and vendor onboarding represents a challenge to risk management. Guardianship of the processes and information falls to frontline staff—most commonly accounts payable staff. All this raises two questions. The first is: Does your organization have adequate controls? The second is: Do the people responsible for managing vendor information understand the control policies, their reasons and do they follow them? Like many things, what looks simple on the surface is not. The list of controls and precautions is longer than one might suppose. How well does your organization manage the risks associated with vendor information management? Financial Operations Networks (FON) wants to help you find...