Detection Method: Vendors with Similar Names

Use this method to find suspicious vendors that have similar names to a high-volume vendor. Typically, a suspicious vendor makes little revenue but their name resembles the name of a high-volume vendor. For example, if there were a vendor called “Ziemens AG ” it might be considered suspicious because it is similar to “Siemens AG”.

Logic

This method determines the low- and high-volume vendors based on the revenue of the last 12 months. For each low-volume vendor, it tries to find matching high-volume vendors that have similar names. The matching is done with a freestyle fuzzy search on the four name columns of table LFA1. You can restrict matching by specifying thresholds for the minimum turnover of valid vendors and the maximum turnover of vendors that may be suspicious.

Investigation and Detection Object Types

Investigation object type: FRA_VEND (Vendor)
Detection object type: FRA_VEND (Vendor Master Data)

ERP Tables Used

BKPF: Accounting Document Header
BSEG: Accounting Document Segment
LFA1: Vendor Master (General Section)
LFB1: Vendor Master (Company Code)

SAP HANA Procedures for Detection Methods

Procedure Category	Procedure Name	Procedure Type	Package
Selection	PR_VENDOR_NAME_CHECKS_SELE	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.pur.dt.vendor.masterdata.se
Execution	PR_VENDOR_SIMILAR_NAME_EXEC	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.pur.dt.vendor.masterdata.ex
Additional Information	PR_VENDOR_SIMILAR_NAME_ADDINF	SQLScript Procedure	sap.hana-app.fra.suite.pur.dt.vendor.masterdata.ai

The execution procedure uses two foundation procedures:

PR_VENDOR_SIMILAR_NAME_FUZZY_SEARCH
This procedure performs the fuzzy-logic search.
PR_CONVERT_AMOUNT_TO_GIVEN_CURRENCY
This procedure converts invoice amounts into the currency of the threshold amount.

Detection Method Parameters

Parameter	Use
THRESHOLD_REVENUE_YEAR	Minimum turnover of vendors who are considered as match candidates (valid vendors to match against suspicious vendors that have similar names). The turnover is aggregated over the last 12 months.
MAX_REVENUE	Maximum turnover of vendors who are considered as fraud candidates.
THRESHOLD_CURRENCY	The currency in which the threshold parameters are denominated.
FUZZINESS	Specifies by how much a search term and a hit in the data being searched may differ. The parameter tells the SAP HANA database how much fuzziness – differences in spelling, differences in number of characters, and so on – to allow in doing a search. The error tolerance scale is a percentage, from 0 to 100, where 100% is an exact match. The lower the value of the fuzziness parameter, the higher the tolerance. That is, a lower fuzziness value may produce too many false positives. The recommended setting is in the range between 80 and 100.

Alert Messages

Message ID FRA_INTERNAL_AUDIT, message number 121, Vendor &1 (&2) has a similar name as high-volume vendor &3 (&4)