Vendor Trust - Muin Docs

Vendor Trust stops a changed bank account from being paid until someone checks it with the vendor. It also shows vendors that look like one of your employees, and how every vendor is screened.

When you’d use this

A vendor emails new bank details and you need to confirm they are real before the next payment.
A payment run warns that a vendor has a held bank change.
You want to know whether any vendor shares an address or bank account with an employee.
An auditor asks how you screen vendors against sanctions lists.

Open Vendor Trust

Go to Finance > Money Out > Vendor Trust. You need the Vendor payment execution view permission. The Finance Officer role has it.

The page has three tabs:

Holds: changes waiting for a call-back.
Employee matches: vendors that share details with an employee.
Screening: how vendors are screened, and which are flagged high risk.

Why a change is held

Changing where a vendor gets paid is a common fraud. Someone sends an email that looks like it is from the vendor and asks you to update their bank account. The next payment goes to the fraudster.

So Muin holds these changes instead of applying them:

a new bank account
a new remit-to address
a new contact phone or email

A change is held whether staff make it on the vendor record or the vendor makes it in the vendor portal. Other edits to the vendor save as normal.

While a change is held:

the vendor keeps its old details
no payment can go out to that vendor
the vendor gets an email, sent to the address on file before the change, saying a change was asked for and payments are on hold

A newer change of the same kind replaces one still held for that vendor.

Who can verify a change

A held change needs a second person. That person must:

hold the Vendor payment execution manage permission (the Finance Officer role has it)
not be the person who asked for the change

If you asked for the change yourself, Muin tells you someone else must call the vendor back. A verify card also lands in the inbox of someone who can release it, never the requester.

Verify a change by calling back

Open the Holds tab and find the vendor.
Click Verify.
Call the vendor on the phone number shown. This is the number on file before the change. Never use a phone number from the request itself. If there was no phone on file, reach the vendor through a contact you already trust.
Fill in the call record:
- Person you spoke to
- Last 4 digits of the number you called
- Last 4 digits of the new account, read back by the vendor (bank changes only)
- notes on what the vendor confirmed
Click Verify and release.

Muin checks the call record. It refuses the release if the number you called does not end in the same 4 digits as the number on file, or if the account digits the vendor read back do not match the new account. When it passes, the new details apply and payments can go out again.

Reject a change

If the vendor did not ask for the change, click Reject and say why. The vendor keeps the details it had before the request, and payments can go out again.

Approve from your phone

The verify card also appears in your Muin Go inbox. You can approve or reject it there. Approving needs a call-back note: who you called, on which number, and what they confirmed. Muin Go will not approve without one, and Muin refuses an approval that has no note.

The payment-run warning

When you build a payment run, the preview shows a Held bank change warning if any vendor in the run has a held change. It names each vendor. Their bills are refused when you confirm the run. Click Open Vendor Trust to verify the change first.

The warning only shows for people who can see holds. Anyone else still gets the refusal at confirm.

Employee matches

A vendor that shares details with an employee can be a conflict of interest, or a fake vendor. Muin compares each vendor with your current employees (not terminated) on:

Address: the same street line and postal code
Bank account: the same account number, and the same routing number when both have one
Tax ID: the vendor’s tax ID matches an employee’s Social Security number
Name: the vendor’s name, without words like “LLC”, is exactly an employee’s first and last name

Matches are checked when a vendor is added, when a vendor bank change is requested, and when an employee is added. Click Scan all vendors now to check every vendor at once.

Review each match:

Click the match.
Choose Dismiss: not a conflict or Confirm: a real conflict to act on.
Add a note explaining the decision, and save.

A dismissed match does not come back on a later scan. Matches show only to people with the Vendor payment execution permission, not to everyone who can see vendors.

Screening at vendor creation

Every vendor is checked against the OFAC sanctions list and, where it is set up, SAM.gov exclusions:

When the vendor is created. A vendor on a list cannot be created. Muin names the list it matched.
Before any bill is approved or paid. A vendor that has not cleared screening cannot be paid.

If a list could not be checked when the vendor was added, the vendor is still created, but flagged. Payments stay refused until a screen succeeds.

The Screening tab lists vendors flagged high risk. Click Open Vendor Risk for the full risk view.

When it goes wrong

“You requested this change, so someone else must call the vendor back.” Ask a colleague with the Finance Officer role to verify it.
“The call-back must go to the phone number on file before the change.” You entered digits from a different number. Call the number shown in the dialog.
“The last 4 digits the vendor confirmed do not match the new account.” Do not release. Reject the change or call the vendor again.
A vendor cannot be paid but has no hold. Check the Screening tab. The vendor may not have cleared screening yet.

Next step

Payment runs: where the held-change warning shows.
Vendor scorecards and risk: the full risk view for flagged vendors.
SAM.gov verification: how exclusion checks work.
Vendor insurance certificates: coverage each vendor must carry.