Detection Method: Travel Expenses with Rounded Amounts

Travel expenses can be used to mask payments that actually have another purpose, for instance bribes. Use this detection method to identify one suspicious pattern: Employees who have repeatedly filed travel expenses with unusually rounded amounts above a threshold amount.

Logic

The detection method returns a high detection score if the following conditions are met:

The number of relevant rounded receipts exceeds the threshold that you set. A receipt is relevant only if it is rounded according to the rules in table PR_TREXRECEIPTS_EVENAMOUNTS_DT. The receipt must also exceed the minimum amount that is also set in this table.
Review Period
A list of travel receipts is created for a defined period of time including the posting date of the receipt.

The list of travel receipts contains receipts have been posted up to n days prior, it also considers the posting date of the receipt.

n corresponds to the parameter “Review Period in Days” that has to be maintained at strategy level.

This execution procedure performs the following steps:

Selecting the receipts that are associated
The receipts that are associated to the trips in table IT_DATA are selected.

The underlying receipt table is joined with the trips to be analyzed from table IT_DATA (using the personnel number PERSONNEL_NR).

The analyzed trip is in the database (during mass detection) but must be removed before counting the suspicious receipts.
Discovering rounded, nontrivial amounts
Based on currency and amount, the decision table returns a divisor and an intermediate score. If the intermediate score is 0, then the amount is trivial. The receipt is ignored.

All “uneven” results are ignored and not exported to the additional information procedure. This has an influence on the calculated risk amount.
Discovering even amounts
The method uses the divisor from the decision table to determine whether an amount is rounded. Receipts with rounded amounts are reported as alert items and are added up to yield the risk value.

Decision Table for Rounded Amounts

This detection method uses a decision table to determine the following:

Whether the amount on a travel receipt is rounded or not; and
Whether the amount is large enough to be included in processing.

Receipts that do not have rounded amounts, or that have trivial amounts, are not processed by this detection method.

The decision table is PR_TREXRECEIPTS_EVENAMOUNTS_DT. It is defined in the SAP HANA database.

The decision table is used to:

Specify what an “even amount” is.
The formula for evaluating an amount is shown after the table excerpt, below.
Specify the minimum amount for relevant receipts.
The standard SAP rules skip all receipts for less than or equal € 40, $ 50, CHF 10, and JPY 10000, even if the amounts are even.
Specify the value for the intermediate score of a relevant receipt.

The detection method treats all currencies not explicitly listed in the table as currency “*”. The table contains more standard entries than are shown here.

Note Note

If you wish to change the rules in the decision table, then you must copy the table. Do this in the SAP HANA Studio. You must then also copy and modify the detection method procedures cited in Procedures for Detection Methods, below. These procedures must then use your new table. You must also replace the methods in any detection methods that you have set up for travel expenses.

End of the note.

Currency	Amount	DIVISOR	INTERMEDIATE_SCORE
EUR	<= 40	10	0
EUR	> 40	10	1
USD	<= 50	10	0
USD	> 50	10	1
CHF	<= 10	10	0
CHF	> 10	10	1
JPY	<= 10000	1000	0
JPY	> 10000	1000	1
*	<= 10	10	0
*	> 10	10	1

Deciding whether an amount is even: This detection method uses the following formula to decide whether an amount is rounded:

The amount is divided by the DIVISOR from the decision table.
Any decimal remainder is removed from the new amount. The new amount is not rounded up on the basis of the remainder.
The new amount is multiplied by the DIVISOR.
The new amount is subtracted from the original amount. If the result is 0, then the original amount was rounded. If the result is greater than 0, then the receipt is ignored.

Example Example

The amount of a travel receipt is 4350. The divisor defined in the decision table is 100.

The even amount is calculated as follows:

The amount is divided by the divisor.
4350/100 = 43.5

The result is 43.5.
The decimal is cut of/removed: 43.5 => 43.
This result is multiplied by the divisor.
43 * 100 = 4300

The result is 4300.
The difference between the “original” amount and the result from step 3 is calculated.
The difference is 50; that is unequal zero.

Therefore, the “original” amount is not considered as an even amount.

According to the decision table JPY 4300 is an even amount, whereas JPY 4350 is not an even amount.

End of the example.

Detection and Investigation Object Types

Investigation object type FRA_EMPL (Employee)
Detection object type FRA_TERCPT (Travel Expense Receipt)

ERP Tables Used

PTRV_HEAD: General Trip Data
PTRV_SREC: Trip Statistics - Receipts
PA0001: HR Master Record: Infotype 0001 (Org. Assignment)
PA0002: HR Master Record: Infotype 0002 (Personal Data)

SAP HANA Procedures for Detection Methods

Procedure Category	Procedure Name	Procedure Type	Package
Selection	PR_TREXRECEIPTS_EVENAMOUNTS_SELE	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.hr.dt.employee.travexpreceipt.se
Execution	PR_TREXRECEIPTS_EVENAMOUNTS_EXEC	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.hr.dt.employee.travexpreceipt.ex
Additional Information	PR_TREXRECEIPTS_EVENAMOUNTS_ADDINF	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.hr.dt.employee.travexpreceipt.ai

Detection Method Parameters

NUMBER_OF_RECEIPTS: The threshold for the minimum number of receipts with rounded amounts. A detection result of 100 and alert items are returned only if the number of receipts exceeds this threshold.
REVIEW_PERIOD_IN_DAYS: The period of time to review in days.

Alert Messages

Message ID	Message Number	Message Text
FRA_INTERNAL_AUDIT	069	Associated trip: &1 - &2; Amount: &3 &4