The IOFM Podcast
Inside IOFM's Vendor Management & Fraud Prevention Workshops
In this episode, AP expert Debra Richardson joins host Grace Berube to walk through the five sessions she is presenting in 2026 on vendor management and fraud prevention — four of which are new. All five connect in some way to fraud, covering everything from hands-on workshops on vendor authentication and process design, to a specialist-focused session on daily fraud prevention, a cross-departmental look at how other teams can inadvertently undermine vendor controls, and a crowd-sourced session where attendees share their own real fraud experiences and get peer and expert feedback in real time. Debra also makes the case for networking as seriously as you take formal learning, because peer connections often turn out to be just as valuable as the sessions themselves. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE What's inside Debra's flagship three-hour workshop on vendor authentication, validation, and management — including the two additions she's made for 2026 and why she updates the framework every year. How a companion workshop lets attendees apply what they've learned by walking through their own vendor processes and identifying gaps in real time. Why standard cybersecurity training often misses what AP specialists actually face daily — and what a dedicated internal controls session can do to fill that gap at the user level. How other departments like IT, procurement, and treasury can unknowingly create vulnerabilities in the vendor master file, illustrated by Debra's own experience discovering purchasing had edit access to critical vendor contact data. Why Debra's crowd-sourced fraud session stands apart: instead of press-release case studies, participants share their own attempted and successful fraud stories — with full details and real solutions — and get live feedback from peers and experts.
