Managing people

How to detect and prevent expense fraud

Expense fraud isn’t always obvious. Learn how to recognize common schemes, spot suspicious claims, and strengthen your expense controls.

Published August 17, 202610 min read Share

Expense fraud can be easy to miss because it often looks like a normal reimbursement request.

But when employees submit false, inflated, duplicate, or personal expenses as business costs, those seemingly small claims can quietly drain cash, create extra work for finance teams, and weaken trust in your controls.

Because the warning signs are often subtle, it can take time to spot a problem or identify someone who may be exploiting gaps in your expense process.

Understanding the most common types of expense fraud and how to improve expense report fraud detection can help reduce financial losses and strengthen your controls.

Key takeaways

• Expense fraud can take many forms, including fake, inflated, duplicate, or mischaracterised claims, and small violations can add up over time.
• The most effective way to reduce expense fraud risk is to combine clear policies, consistent oversight, and approval controls with tools that make suspicious activity easier to spot.
• Expense report software can strengthen prevention and detection efforts by automating policy and duplicate checks, improving visibility, and reducing manual work.

Here’s what we’ll cover

What is expense fraud?

Expense fraud happens when an employee intentionally submits a false, inflated, duplicate, or personal expense to receive reimbursement they aren’t entitled to. It’s also known as reimbursement fraud, expense reimbursement fraud, expense claim fraud, or expense report fraud.

Intent is what distinguishes employee expense fraud from an honest mistake. Choosing the wrong expense category or accidentally submitting the same receipt twice may be an error, while knowingly providing false or misleading information for personal gain is fraud.

Business expense fraud may involve a single claim or a pattern of repeated false claims. Even when individual amounts are relatively small, repeated fraudulent reimbursements can increase costs, create additional work for finance teams, and weaken internal controls.

Expense reimbursement fraud can be easier to commit when policies are unclear, documentation requirements are inconsistent, or claims are approved without adequate review. Regular oversight and clearly documented approval processes make suspicious activity easier to identify.

In Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) defines a reimbursement as an amount paid to an employee for expenses incurred while carrying out their employment duties. The CRA states that employees should provide their employer with proper records, including detailed receipts, to support reimbursed expenses.

What are the most common types of employee expense fraud?

The most common types of employee expense fraud are fictitious expenses, mischaracterised expenses, inflated claims, altered receipts, duplicate submissions, and false mileage or travel claims.

Expense fraud usually shows up in a handful of repeatable patterns. Understanding those patterns makes it easier to spot reimbursement fraud before it becomes a costly habit.

Type of expense fraud	What it means	Example
Fictitious expenses	Employees submit a claim for something they never purchased. This may involve fake receipts created with software or blank receipts filled in manually.	An employee submits a receipt for a taxi ride that never happened.
Mischaracterised expenses	Employees submit a personal cost as if it were a legitimate business expense or mislabel an out-of-policy purchase.	An employee claims a dinner with friends as a client meeting.
Inflated expenses	A real business expense is altered, so the employee is reimbursed for more than they spent.	A handwritten receipt is changed from $10 to $100.
Altered or fabricated receipts	Employees change information on a genuine receipt or create a false document to support a fraudulent expense claim. The amount, date, items purchased, or vendor details may be changed.	An employee digitally alters a restaurant receipt to increase the total or remove a personal item.
Duplicate submissions	The same receipt or transaction is submitted more than once, either deliberately or by exploiting weak review processes.	An employee submits the same hotel receipt in both a paper report and a digital expense claim.
False mileage or travel claims	Employees exaggerate the distance travelled, claim for a journey that didn’t happen, or submit personal travel as a business expense.	An employee adds personal kilometres to a business mileage claim or requests reimbursement for a trip that was cancelled.

How to detect expense fraud

Expense report fraud detection starts with looking for patterns that don’t match normal business spending. Effective expense reviews combine policy checks, document checks, approval controls, and software alerts.

Conduct periodic, risk-based reviews of expense reports to identify anomalies and recurring patterns.

Check whether each claim has the supporting documents required by your expense policy and whether the expense matches relevant corporate card transactions, travel bookings, meeting records, or other business activity. This helps establish whether the claim had a legitimate business purpose.

For suspicious or higher-risk claims, you may also need to verify the supporting document with the vendor. Where possible, use independently verified contact information rather than solely relying on the details shown on the receipt.

Common warning signs of expense report fraud include:

Area to review	Warning signs
Claim amounts and timing	Rounded amounts, claims just below approval thresholds, or sudden increases in the number or value of expenses.
Duplicate claims	Matching receipt numbers, dates, amounts, images, or transactions submitted through different channels.
Supporting documents	Vague descriptions, repeated missing receipts, inconsistent fonts or layouts, altered details, or questionable vendor and tax information.
Business activity	Expenses that don’t match corporate card data, travel dates, meeting records, approved trips, or other documented business activity.

A warning sign doesn’t prove that expense fraud has occurred. It indicates that the claim may need further review, as anomalies can also result from errors or misunderstandings.

How does expense management software help with fraud detection?

Expense management software can support expense fraud detection by helping finance teams identify suspicious claims by flagging duplicate submissions, policy violations, receipt mismatches, unusual timing, and other spending anomalies.

Expense management automation applies these checks consistently across claims, reducing the reliance on manual review.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts receipt images into searchable data, allowing compatible software to compare the vendor, date, amount, and tax with the expense claim. OCR doesn’t confirm that a receipt is genuine, but rule-based checks and analytics may identify altered information, unusual claim patterns, or inconsistencies with other records.

Design software and generative AI can be used to create convincing false receipts, making these checks increasingly important. Expense software can direct finance teams towards higher-risk claims, but flagged activity should be reviewed alongside corporate card transactions, travel records, and other available evidence before fraud is assumed.

How can you prevent expense fraud?

The best way to reduce expense fraud is to make the rules clear, approvals consistent, and exceptions visible. Prevention works best when policy, process, and software reinforce each other.

Here are some practical measures that can help reduce the risk of expense fraud:

Clear expense policies

Establish clear, accessible guidelines covering reimbursable expenses, spending limits, required documentation, submission deadlines, and policy exceptions.

Explain how suspected errors or fraud will be reviewed and apply the policy consistently across the organisation.

Approval workflows

Use appropriate checks and balances, such as manager approval and controls that stop employees from approving their own expenses.

Larger, unusual, or higher-risk claims may require an additional independent review. Keep approvals and any policy exceptions documented and traceable.

Control of corporate cards

Build spending limits into the corporate cards you issue to employees.

Where available, use transaction monitoring and merchant category controls to identify unusual activity or restrict purchases such as cash withdrawals. Reconcile card transactions with expense claims and cancel cards promptly when employees leave the business.

Employee training

Help employees understand your expense management policies and the possible consequences of deliberate fraud, which may include disciplinary or legal action.

Include training in ethical behaviour as part of employee onboarding and ongoing development. Give employees a clear, confidential way to report suspected expense fraud or conflicts of interest.

What should you do if you detect expense fraud?

If an expense claim raises concerns, take time to establish the facts before deciding what has happened. A consistent, confidential process can help you treat the employee fairly while protecting your business.

The right approach will depend on the circumstances and the applicable employment, privacy, and collective agreement requirements. These can vary across Canada, so consider involving HR, legal counsel, or another qualified adviser when appropriate.

1. Gather the relevant information

Bring together the receipts, expense reports, approval records, and other information connected with the claim.

Keep the information confidential and limit access to the people involved in reviewing the concern.

2. Review what happened

Look at the available information objectively and consider whether the claim could be an honest mistake, a misunderstanding of the policy, or deliberate misconduct.

For more serious or complex concerns, support from HR, legal counsel, or a qualified investigator may help you decide how to proceed.

3. Speak with the employee

Approach the employee professionally, explain the concern, and give them an opportunity to respond.

There may be a reasonable explanation for an unusual claim, so consider their response alongside the other available information before reaching a conclusion.

4. Decide what to do next

If your review identifies misconduct, consider the seriousness of the behaviour, the available evidence, your expense and disciplinary policies, and the employee’s explanation.

Possible next steps will depend on the circumstances and applicable employment requirements, so professional advice may be appropriate before taking significant disciplinary action.

5. Strengthen your controls

Analyse how the issue arose and whether changes to your policies, approvals, or documentation requirements could reduce the risk of it happening again.

For example, you might introduce additional review for higher-risk claims or make an unclear part of your expense policy easier for employees to understand.

Final thoughts

Individual fraudulent claims may appear small, but their financial and cultural impact can grow if they go undetected.

From mischaracterised expenses to inflated claims and duplicate submissions, routine reimbursements can expose gaps in your policies and controls.

Clear policies, consistent approvals, employee training, and regular oversight can all help reduce the risk. Technology can strengthen these measures by making it easier to identify unusual claims, apply expense rules consistently, and maintain visibility as your business grows.

The right expense management software can help you streamline reviews, strengthen controls, and manage employee spending with greater confidence. For businesses that also need to connect employee expenses with time tracking and project accounting, explore Sage Intacct time and expense management.

Expense fraud FAQs

What’s the difference between expense fraud and an honest mistake?

The key difference between fraud and a mistake is intent. Expense fraud involves knowingly submitting false or misleading claims for personal gain, while an honest mistake is an unintentional error, such as choosing the wrong category, entering the wrong amount, or misunderstanding the policy.

What are the red flags of expense report fraud?

Common red flags include rounded amounts, duplicate claims, vague descriptions, altered receipts, repeated missing documentation, and expenses that fall just below approval limits. Claims that don’t match corporate card transactions, travel records, or other business activity may also require closer review. However, a warning sign alone doesn’t prove fraud.

What are examples of expense fraud?

Examples of expense fraud include claiming a personal meal as a client meeting, exaggerating mileage, altering a receipt, submitting the same expense more than once, or requesting reimbursement for a purchase that never happened. In each case, the employee intentionally misrepresents the expense for personal gain.

How should you approach an employee about suspected expense fraud?

Approach the employee privately and professionally after gathering the relevant information. Explain the concern without assuming that fraud has occurred, give the employee an opportunity to respond, and consider their explanation before deciding what to do next. Depending on the circumstances, support from HR, legal counsel, or another qualified adviser may be appropriate.

How can businesses prevent fraudulent or duplicate reimbursements?

Businesses can reduce fraudulent or duplicate reimbursements by setting clear expense rules, requiring appropriate supporting documents, and using consistent approval workflows. Comparing claims with corporate card transactions and using expense management software to flag possible duplicates or policy exceptions can make higher-risk claims easier to identify.

This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Consider seeking professional advice based on your circumstances.

Browse more topics from this article

• expenses
• HR
• making financial decisions