Why vendor checks should happen where the payment is made

Most organisations check a vendor once, at onboarding. The risk does not stop there. The moment that matters is the payment, and that is often where nobody looks.

The gap

A typical setup looks like this. Procurement or compliance reviews a new vendor, files the documents and approves it. Months later, the payments team pays an invoice from the same vendor in the finance system.

Between those two moments, a lot can change:

• The trade licence or tax registration expires
• The bank details change
• The vendor appears on a sanctions list
• A required document was never collected, but the vendor was approved anyway
• The annual review was due and never happened

The person releasing the payment usually cannot see any of this. The review lives in email, a shared drive or a separate tool.

Put the answer on the payment screen

The fix is simple to describe: show the person paying a clear answer, at the moment they pay. Not a report to look up. One verdict, with the reason behind it.

Three answers are enough:

• Payable. All required checks and controls are cleared.
• Payable with risk. The review is complete, with documented caveats. Payment can go ahead under set conditions.
• Not payable. A critical check failed or the risk is too high. Payment waits until the case is resolved.

Keep the vendor under review

A verdict is only as good as the last review. Higher-risk vendors should be reviewed more often and more deeply than low-risk ones. Every action, document and decision should be kept on the vendor's record, so an auditor can see who approved what, and why.

How VendorGuard does it

VendorGuard follows each vendor from onboarding to offboarding. It scores the risk, keeps the evidence and shows the verdict on the Supplier and Invoice pages in Oracle Fusion Financials, where payments are made.