Good morning! Thanks for checking the invoices. NetParts is sending us a corrected invoice.
A quick look back at Day 1: about 180 invoices arrive every month, and we check each one by hand against the order and the delivery note. On my desk, invoice A charged us for 40 cables, but only 36 arrived, invoice B was the office rent, invoice C was already paid, and invoice D came from a fake “TechSupply” with new bank details and no order. Heike also remembered an older fake email from “TechSupply”: it asked for €18,400 to new bank details, and my phone call stopped it.
Then we looked at PayFlow, which pays invoices below €5,000 on its own, and at Arup, where criminals used fake videos in a video call to steal about 25 million US dollars. And Lukas, our apprentice, asked who is responsible if PayFlow pays a fake invoice.
Today we check PayFlow with numbers, test it ourselves, and then you write our payment rule. I'll take your rule to the managing directors. Before that, you prepare a short statement about it for your classmates. Let's start with Step 1.
Open your workbook for Finance and go to Day 2. Keep this page open next to it.
Download your workbook for FinanceThis file is for your internship in Finance, with one part for Day 1 and one part for Day 2. Download it once and use it on both days. The file lands in your Downloads folder. If you missed Day 1, download the workbook now and go straight to Day 2: the check on this page only looks at your answers for Day 2.
Calculate and check
Amara collected the facts about PayFlow in M6. Use them to find out what PayFlow saves and where it is weak. Always write down your calculation. The box “Words for this internship” explains the words you need in Finance.
- invoice
- Rechnung: a document that says how much a customer has to pay
- order
- Bestellung: what a company asked a supplier to deliver
- delivery note
- Lieferschein: a list of what really arrived
- bank details
- Bankverbindung: the account the money goes to
- four-eyes principle
- Vier-Augen-Prinzip: two people check before money goes out
- payment limit
- Zahlungsgrenze: the highest amount that can be paid without an extra check
- fraud
- Betrug: tricking someone to get their money
- liable
- haftbar: responsible for paying for a damage
PayFlow at Backbone: the facts
Collected by Amara| Facts | |
|---|---|
| Invoices from suppliers | about 180 per month; Finance checks about 10 invoices per hour |
| One working hour in Finance | costs Backbone €38 in staff costs |
| PayFlow | €99 a month; pays on its own when order and invoice match and the amount is below €5,000 |
| Checking PayFlow | one person checks the payments of PayFlow for 2 h per month |
| Heike's older fake TechSupply email | it asked for €18,400 to new bank details; Amara's phone call stopped it |
| Money sent to criminals | is usually lost; banks can rarely get it back |
- a) How many working hours does Finance need each month to check all invoices by hand, and what do these hours cost? Write down your calculation.
- b) Assume that PayFlow does all the checking. What does PayFlow cost per month, including the 2 h when a person checks it? How much does Backbone save per month and per year? Write down your calculation.
- c) First: would PayFlow pay Heike's fake TechSupply invoice of €18,400 on its own? Then imagine this: the criminals send the same amount as 4 invoices of the same size. Each invoice has a real order number, stolen from an email, and a matching amount. PayFlow does not check bank details. Calculate the amount of one invoice. Then explain what PayFlow would do.
- d) PayFlow pays the four fake invoices from c). With the saving per month from b), how many months does Backbone need to save this money again? Round up (aufrunden) to a full month. Write down your calculation.
a) 180 ÷ 10 = 18 h; 18 × €38 = €684 a month.
b) €99 + 2 × €38 = €175 a month. Saving: €684 − €175 = €509 a month, €509 × 12 = €6,108 a year.
c) No: €18,400 is above the limit of €5,000, so a person checks it. Split: €18,400 ÷ 4 = €4,600 per invoice. Each one is below the limit and has a real order number, so PayFlow pays all four on its own.
d) €18,400 ÷ €509 = 36.1, so 37 months: about three years of savings are gone.
Test PayFlow yourself
PayFlow pays an invoice on its own when it matches an order and the amount is below the payment limit. In the simulator, you set the limit. You can also switch on one rule that Finance already uses: invoices with new bank details always go to a second person. Watch four invoices: invoice A from NetParts (€3,140) and invoice B, the office rent (€6,500), both real, and Heike's fake TechSupply invoice of €18,400, once in one piece and once split into four. Move the slider slowly, then switch the extra rule on. At Backbone, Amara writes the payment rule, and the managing directors decide if it starts.
| Payment limit | Invoice A (€3,140) | Invoice B (€6,500) | Fake invoice, €18,400 in one | Fake invoice, split into 4 × €4,600 | Fraud paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €3,000 | a person checks | a person checks | stopped | stopped | €0 |
| €5,000 | PayFlow pays €3,140 | a person checks | stopped | all four paid | €18,400 |
| €7,000 | PayFlow pays €3,140 | PayFlow pays | stopped | all four paid | €18,400 |
| €20,000 | PayFlow pays €3,140 | PayFlow pays | paid | all four paid | €18,400 |
| €5,000 + extra rule | PayFlow pays €3,140 | a person checks | stopped | stopped | €0 |
PayFlow pays on its own when the invoice matches an order and the amount is below the limit. The fake invoices go to new bank details. With a lower limit, a person checks more invoices by hand, so PayFlow saves less than in Step 1 b).
- Lukas asked in the team meeting on Day 1: “If PayFlow pays a fake invoice, who is responsible? The tool, the person who set it up, or me?”
- Write your answer to Lukas in two sentences. Who should be responsible if PayFlow pays a fake invoice? Use the simulator on the internship page: the payment limit and the extra rule for new bank details decide if PayFlow pays a fake invoice. Who at Backbone decides about them?Help: “Lukas, you are not ..., because ... The responsibility lies with ..., because they decide ...”
A strong answer: Lukas is not responsible, because he did not set the limit or the rules. The responsibility lies with the people who decide about the limit and the checks, for example the head of Finance and the managing directors; to other companies, Backbone as a company is liable.
What the simulator shows: with the limit of €5,000, PayFlow pays all four split fake invoices (€18,400, that is 37 months of savings). A lower limit stops them (from €4,600 down), but then a person checks more invoices by hand. The extra rule for new bank details stops the fraud at every limit.
Zoom out: the whole city
Leave Backbone for a moment and look at the whole city. Imagine that most companies in Ohm City let AI tools like PayFlow pay their invoices.
- a) What happens to fraud in Ohm City? Complete this sentence in the box: “Most companies pay invoices automatically, so criminals ..., therefore ...”
- b) Small suppliers, for example a one-person repair shop, often wait weeks for their money today. Name one advantage and one risk for them when most companies pay automatically. Two sentences.Help: Think of Step 1 c): what can criminals do with the name of a small supplier? And what happens when a tool stops a correct invoice and nobody looks at it? “One advantage is ... One risk is ...”
- c) An AI tool pays a fake invoice, and the money is gone. Who should be liable for the loss? Tick exactly one box.The company that paid · The company that sells the AI tool · The bank that sent the money
- d) Explain your choice in c) in two sentences. Then name one weakness of your choice in a third sentence.Help: Think of Lukas and of a small supplier. “I choose ..., because ... One weakness is that ...”
a) For example: Most companies pay invoices automatically, so criminals study the rules of the tools (split invoices, stolen order numbers, deepfakes), therefore every company needs new checks, and fraud probably becomes more common.
b) Advantage: the money comes faster, so the small supplier can pay its own bills. Risk: the tool rejects a correct invoice by mistake and there is nobody to call, or criminals pretend to be the small supplier.
c) All three choices are possible. What counts is your reason and an honest weakness. The company that paid can set the limits and checks, but a small company can hardly carry a big loss. The company that sells the tool knows the technology, but it would try to exclude liability or make the tool more expensive. The bank sees suspicious accounts, but it did not start the payment.
Your payment rule and your statement
Work alone. You write the payment rule for Finance, like Amara would, so you say “our rule”. Amara takes your rule to the managing directors. Before that, you prepare a short statement about it for your classmates. You can use PayFlow as offered, change the limit or the checks, or keep checking by hand. Choose the rule you can defend best.
- a) Write Backbone's payment rule in one or two sentences. Your rule answers three questions: Does Backbone use PayFlow? Up to which amount does it pay on its own? Which cases always go to two people?Help: “Backbone uses PayFlow for invoices below €..., and ... always go to two people.” or “Backbone keeps checking by hand, and ...”
- b) Prepare your statement. Write exactly three sentences, one in each box.
- Sentence 1 starts with: “Our rule is ...” Write your rule from a) again as one sentence and start it with these words.
- Sentence 2 starts with: “The strongest reason for our rule is ...” Use a number from Step 1 or a fact from M6 or the Arup case (about 25 million US dollars).
- Sentence 3 starts with: “The biggest weakness of our rule is ..., and we deal with it by ...”Help for sentence 3: “The biggest weakness of our rule is that it costs ... / that criminals could ..., and we deal with it by ...”
- c) Everyone prepares this part. Ms Borgwardt chooses some of you to read their three sentences out loud. Then two classmates ask two questions: “Who loses because of your rule?” and “How much does your rule cost?” Write your answers here, one or two sentences each.
- Question 1: “Who loses because of your rule?”Help for question 1: Who is worse off with your rule: who has more risk, more work, or waits longer for money? If your rule uses PayFlow, think of Lukas (who gets the blame for a mistake?) and of small suppliers (what happens when PayFlow stops their invoice?). If your rule keeps checking by hand, think of the Finance team and of the suppliers who wait for their money.
- Question 2: “How much does your rule cost?”Help for question 2: Use your results from Step 1: what PayFlow saves per month (b) and what the split fake invoices would cost (c and d). If you changed the limit or the checks, say if you save more or less than in Step 1 b), and why. “Our rule saves about €... a month. If ..., we could lose €...” If your rule keeps checking by hand: “Our rule costs about €684 a month in staff time, but a person checks every invoice.”
Every rule is possible. A strong rule answers all three questions in a). In b), sentence 2 has a number or a fact (€684, €175, €509, €6,108, €4,600, 37 months, Arup), and sentence 3 names a real weakness and what you do about it.
Strong middle ways: PayFlow checks all invoices, but only pays known suppliers with unchanged bank details on its own; new bank details, invoices without an order and several invoices from the same supplier in a short time always go to two people; or a lower limit.
Question 1 needs a real person: with PayFlow, Lukas may get the blame, and small suppliers may get no answer when the tool makes a mistake; without PayFlow, the Finance team keeps the work, and suppliers wait longer. Question 2: PayFlow saves €509 a month, but the split fake invoices would cost €18,400, that is 37 months of savings.
The statements
Stop here and wait until the statements start. While you wait, read your three sentences from Step 4 b) to yourself and check your answers in Step 4 c). Ms Borgwardt chooses some of you to read their three sentences. She also chooses two classmates who ask: the first one always asks “Who loses because of your rule?”, the second one always asks “How much does your rule cost?” If you read, answer with your notes from Step 4 c). If you ask, ask your question after each statement. Everyone writes notes, also the readers and the askers: after each statement, write down in a few words who loses, in the box for this step. At the end, write two sentences under your notes: What do the people who lose have in common?
- First, while you listen: who loses in each statement? A few words for each one. Then think about all the answers to the first question, “Who loses because of your rule?” Write two sentences under your notes: What do the people who lose have in common?Help: Look at your notes. Do the people who lose decide about the rule? “Most of the people who lose are ... They all ...” If you missed the statements: leave out the notes and write two sentences. Think of Lukas and of small suppliers, and of the people who lose under your own rule. What do they have in common?
A strong answer finds a pattern, for example: the people who lose are often at the start of their working life, have little money, or have no say in the decision. They carry the risk of the new tool, but they did not choose it.
Check your answer: Did you name what the people have in common, and not only who they are?
What I learned today
Write three sentences, one for each important thing you learned in Finance, in your own words. For example: what PayFlow saves, and why a payment limit alone does not stop fraud.
Check your workbook
- Save your workbook.
- Choose the file here.
- Does the page name a step? Then an answer is still missing or very short. Fill in that box, save the file and choose it here again.
- When all answers are there, Amara answers you and the solutions appear under every step.
- Compare the solutions with your answers. Is a number or a fact in your answer wrong? Write “Correction:” and the right answer in the same box, under your answer.
- Is the answer your own opinion or your own rule? Then more than one answer can be good. Write “Also:” and one idea from the solution that you did not have.
- Save your workbook again.
Thank you for our payment rule. I'm taking it to the managing directors, and I'll tell them where it came from.
And I'll show Lukas your answer. It was great to have you in Finance, thank you!
If you want to go further, build your own invoice agent and test it on twelve invoices: Build your own PayFlow.