Efficiency. Convenience. Simplicity. Savings in costs and time. There are numerous advantages to knowing how to take advantage of technology. These advantages also influence every aspect of our lives: personal, social, professional, etc. Technological advances have an impact on every field, and finance is no exception.
In fact, its importance in the financial sector has been growing, becoming an essential assistant and tool for many operations and procedures, but also from the point of view of security and prevention. It seems that it is already (and will be even more so in the future) a key player in detecting fraud in audits. How? At easyap, we'll tell you.
The importance of audits for detecting fraud in companies
Tax fraud and tax evasion are intrinsic to the corporate world and business. Every entrepreneur or financial manager looks for ways to save money and avoid paying more than necessary. However, they must do so within the law and not by breaking laws and committing fraud (whether intentional or unintentional). Without going any further, according to the newspaper El Salto, the Spanish Treasury loses 2.5% of total tax revenue , or, in other words, €136 for each inhabitant.
One of the ways to combat tax evasion has been through audits, whether internal or external (carried out by large specialized multinationals). They are a control tool that has had and continues to have the following objectives:
- Investigate possible indications of fraud that may have been suspected or reported.
- Prevent fraud with good organization and accounting planning for businesses.
- Detect possible fraud being committed in an organization, whether deliberate or not.
Traditionally, the process of investigating fraud has involved many hours of work and the involvement of numerous professionals. This is especially true in the case of large companies, where there are numerous documents and files to analyze. And it is precisely these processes that with a technological solution such as easyap, are much more agile and faster. Books, papers, and specific sets of programs are beginning to give way to highly useful technological software.
Due to the immense amount of file and process management involved, auditing is a well-paid service. This is why most companies, due to the high cost, do not have an audit department within their own organization. The vast majority of companies use external audit services to analyze their financial controls.
Well, for the big auditing firms (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, or Ernst & Young) as well as smaller ones or internal teams within certain organizations, technology has revolutionized the way they work.
The phases of any financial audit
The reality is that today's audits rely on technology, which greatly streamlines everything, as we will explain later. It doesn't matter if they are large multinationals or internal departments: they all already use certain programs and technological advances to control, prevent, and investigate business accounts. The function of audits continues to be the prevent and detect fraud in companies, but now they are carried out much more efficiently thanks to technological advances.
Each company has its own way of operating, but traditionally, internal and external audits are usually structured in three phases:
Planning
First and foremost, the relationships between the auditing firm, if it is external, and the company to be audited are established in order to determine the scope and objectives. To this end, the situation of the company, its accounting system, its strategies, and other elements that affect its taxation are analyzed.
Execution
The auditors perform the tests and analyze the financial statements as previously established. This is the phase in which errors are detected, the results obtained are studied, and the findings are identified and classified. From there, conclusions are drawn that will be reflected in the final phase.
Preparation of the report
Finally, the conclusions obtained in the audit are compiled and drafted into a report. The same report also includes the financial statements of the administrative area that has been audited, as well as the structure of the company's internal control. Finally, a series of recommendations will be added on what to do to prevent fraud and, consequently, penalties and fines.
What role does easyap play in detecting fraud in an audit?
And what role does easyap and its technology in detecting and preventing online fraud within a company? A truly leading one, as we are about to show you. Implementing software like ours in your company allows you to control the following processes within a single program the following processes:
- The electronic issuance of invoices to all your customers.
- The receipt of invoices issued by your suppliers, adapting them to the system regardless of their format.
- The tax information fully adapted to the legislation your business must comply with.
- Your expenses of your employees with company cards and other costs.
As a result, you will have all this information in one unified space. All of this data is essential when conducting an audit and detecting or preventing tax fraud.
In turn, there are occasions when fraud detection in audits comes from complaints made by suppliers who are unaware of how their payments are going. Thanks to the easyap solution, you will have a "Supplier Portal" where all the information about the approval cycles for each invoice is visible, both to you and to the supplier themselves.
Therefore, forget about problems related to lost or misplaced invoices, duplicate payments, the number of invoices you still have to pay... You and the departments of your company that you want will have everything within the easyap software.
And why easyap software and not another one?
That's a good question, and we have a well-reasoned answer. The easyap team is made up of professionals from both the finance and technology fields. From our own experience, we know what it's like to detect fraud during an audit, we are aware of how much work is involved in investigating and compiling invoices and documents, and of the pressure that such audits entail...
That is precisely why we know exactly what accounting departments need for detection and, above all, for prevent tax fraud. With comprehensive software that also collects all this vast amount of tax information in an orderly manner, the optimization of your business's resources is immense.
Optimization of time and financial resources. That is precisely what we have been offering companies around the world and in a wide range of sectors for more than two decades. Since then, we have been providing a perfect program for preventing tax fraud, which also offers the following advantages to those who implement it:
- It is compatible with any accounting package and/or ERP workflow.
- Low registration fee .
- It adapts to any billing volume, as the cost is per invoice processed and not a fixed cost.
- Agile implementation process that allows you to be operational in weeks.
In fact, while we're on the subject of taxation, not only can digitizing your accounting processes can help you prevent or detect fraud in your business. We are talking about the fact that the processes in which this fraud can occur, such as invoicing, are becoming increasingly technological. In fact, in many countries around the world, including Spain, mandatory to use electronic invoicing with the Public Administration. So get in touch with us as soon as possible and take the step towards your digitization and tax security.
