Christmas Greetings from ACR Software

Breaking news - the curtain is falling on 2024, how quickly, and like clockwork, the notable regular events and waymarkers of the year pass us by. The major football code finals, Melbourne Cup and Black Friday are in the close proximity of our rearview mirrors, trailed by all that went before it in the year - Easter and EOFY to name but a couple.

Now, those reminders of the "silly season" lay ahead - the run of Christmas parties, shopping and celebrations mixed with the more practical tasks of business planning around the period - Christmas to New Year shutdowns and staff leave through December and January.

Throw in clickbait-esque articles about new year resolutions, boxing day sales and it all feels very familiar. Anecdotally, another topic that seems to come up at regular intervals during a year, including Christmas is the rise of scams and cyberfraud taking advantage of individuals and businesses.

In the case of businesses, would-be attackers recognise that periods during which staffing is reduced or outside influences affect operating conditions, that gaps can arise to exploit for their gain, such as sneaking through a compromised supplier invoice or unauthorised payment request.

Collectively, in recent years there has been increasing emphasis by various parties to thwart this - government, banks, telcos and of course individual businesses in their own right. To that end, in late 2024 ACR Software has introduced the "Scam Assistant" and made available in your system should you wish to strengthen your processes around supplier payments and defences against scammers.

The general principle is this: where staff need to manage bank details for a supplier, the system, by configuration, can slow that process down, having them first consider company policies around changing bank details, before having the changes cross-checked and validated by a colleague.

For more information, the ACR training support team is available to discuss and if it's of interest to you, then it's available today in your ACR system and can be switched-on in the leadup to the upcoming holidays and beyond. We hope, should you choose to implement Scam Assistant, that you never have to rely on it.

To wrapup, from all of us at the ACR Software team, we thank you for your continued support in 2024. We wish you, your staff and families a happy and prosperous holiday season. We look forward to working with you in 2025 to have a great year.