Australian businesses lost over $227 million to payment redirection and false billing scams in 2023 alone, according to the ACCC Scamwatch report. For finance managers and CFOs looking to protect their organisations, the search for the right verification tool often leads to two names: Eftsure and OutflowGuard.
They both solve payment fraud. But they are built for very different businesses.
This guide breaks down exactly what each product does, who it is designed for, and how to pick the right one for your situation.
In this article:
- What is payment verification and why do you need it?
- What is Eftsure?
- What is OutflowGuard?
- Eftsure vs OutflowGuard: side-by-side comparison
- Eftsure pricing: what to expect
- When to choose Eftsure
- When to choose OutflowGuard
- Related reading
What is payment verification and why do you need it?
Payment redirection fraud, also called Business Email Compromise (BEC) or invoice fraud, works by tricking your finance team into paying a fraudulent bank account. The attacker either compromises a supplier's email or impersonates them to send a fake "bank account change" request.
The average loss per BEC incident for Australian businesses is approximately $64,000, according to the Australian Signals Directorate Cyber Threat Report 2022-23. For many SMBs, a single successful attack causes lasting financial damage.
Xero has no built-in protection against this. It will happily store a fraudulent bank account update and process payments to it. That gap is exactly what payment verification tools are built to close.
What is Eftsure?
Eftsure is a Sydney-based payment verification platform founded in 2017. Its core mechanism is a proprietary network database of over one million registered Australian payees. Before a payment is made, Eftsure cross-checks the supplier's BSB and account number against this network to flag mismatches or unregistered accounts.
Key Eftsure features include:
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Payee Verification Network (cross-referenced AU business bank accounts)
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Supplier onboarding and bank detail change detection
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EFT payment file screening before bank upload
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Segregation of duties and approval workflows
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Full audit trail for compliance teams
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Integrations with SAP, Oracle, MYOB, and Xero
Eftsure has earned strong reviews from its users, with consistent praise for its fraud detection accuracy and Australian market coverage.
Who Eftsure is built for
Eftsure's customer base tells the story clearly. Their published case studies feature local councils, universities, hospital groups, and ASX-listed companies. Their sales process requires a demo and custom quote. There is no self-serve sign-up, no monthly plan, and no free tier.
Eftsure is built for organisations with dedicated AP teams, procurement departments, and the budget to match.
What is OutflowGuard?
OutflowGuard is an Australian-built SaaS product designed specifically for SMBs using Xero. Rather than a cross-referenced payee database, OutflowGuard connects to your Xero organisation via read-only API access and monitors for supplier bank detail changes and suspicious payment patterns in real time.
Key OutflowGuard features include:
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Real-time alerts via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email when supplier bank details change in Xero
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Dual-approval workflow requiring two people to verify any change before it is accepted
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Free audit tools: ghost supplier detection, round-number invoice scanning, duplicate bill detection
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12-month historical audit of existing Xero data for anomalies
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Full risk scoring and automated analysis of detected changes
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Compliance reports (CSV/Excel) for auditors
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Read-only Xero access (your data never leaves OutflowGuard's Australian servers)
The Free tier gives any business a quarterly health check of their Xero data with no commitment. Paid plans start at $69 per month for continuous monitoring across up to three Xero organisations.
Eftsure vs OutflowGuard: side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Eftsure | OutflowGuard | |---|---|---| | Target market | Enterprise and mid-market | Australian SMBs on Xero | | Pricing | Custom quote (no public pricing) | Free tier + from $69/month | | Setup process | Sales demo, weeks of onboarding | Self-serve, minutes to connect | | Xero integration | Available (one of many integrations) | Xero-native, built for it specifically | | Verification method | Cross-referenced payee database | Real-time Xero monitoring + alerts | | Supplier bank change alerts | Yes | Yes | | Dual approval workflow | Yes | Yes | | Free tier | No | Yes (quarterly health check) | | Data residency | Australia | Australia | | Ideal team size | 50+ employees, dedicated AP team | 5-200 employees, small finance team |
The two tools share a common goal but use fundamentally different approaches. Eftsure verifies payments at the point of processing against a known-good database. OutflowGuard monitors your live Xero data for changes that indicate fraud is being set up.
Eftsure pricing: what to expect
Eftsure does not publish pricing anywhere on its website. To get a quote, you need to book a sales demo.
Based on its market positioning and the types of organisations it serves, Eftsure's entry-level pricing is estimated to start in the range of several thousand Australian dollars per year. Enterprise contracts are likely substantially higher.
This pricing model makes sense for a council or a listed company with a seven-figure AP budget. It does not make sense for a 30-person manufacturing firm where the finance team is one person running Xero.
If you are an SMB and the lack of published pricing is already a friction point, that is informative. Eftsure is designed for buyers who can absorb a sales cycle and a multi-year contract.
When to choose Eftsure
Eftsure is the better choice if your organisation matches this profile:
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You have 100+ employees and a dedicated accounts payable team
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You process payments through multiple ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, MYOB)
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You have existing relationships with a large number of established suppliers who may already be in their network
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Your procurement team handles supplier onboarding formally
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You have the budget for an enterprise contract and the time for a full implementation
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Compliance requirements demand a vendor verification network, not just monitoring
For organisations in healthcare, higher education, local government, or large NFPs, Eftsure's payee verification network adds a layer of protection that goes beyond what monitoring alone can provide.
When to choose OutflowGuard
OutflowGuard is the better choice if your situation looks like this:
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You run Xero as your primary accounting system
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Your finance team is one to five people (or you are the finance team)
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You want to be alerted the moment a supplier's bank details change in Xero, before any payment is made
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You need something you can set up yourself in under an hour, without a sales call
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You want transparent pricing and no lock-in
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You have had a near-miss with payment redirection fraud, or a peer has, and you want to act now
OutflowGuard also works well for bookkeepers and accounting firms managing multiple client Xero organisations. The Agency plan covers multiple orgs under one login, making it practical to offer fraud monitoring as part of a client service package.
If you use Xero and you want real-time protection against the most common fraud vector hitting Australian SMBs today, OutflowGuard is built for exactly that.
Related reading
- What is payment redirect fraud?
- How to detect unauthorised supplier bank detail changes in Xero
- Vendor fraud in Australian small businesses: the silent $2.6B problem
Conclusion
Eftsure and OutflowGuard are not really in direct competition. They serve different markets with different budgets, team sizes, and technical requirements.
Eftsure is a well-built enterprise tool for large organisations that need a verified payee network, multi-ERP integration, and a formal procurement-aligned onboarding process.
OutflowGuard is built for the Australian SMB that runs Xero, wants to know the moment something changes with a supplier's bank account, and cannot justify a four-figure monthly contract to achieve that.
If you are a CFO, finance manager, or bookkeeper at an Australian small or medium business, OutflowGuard's free health check is a reasonable place to start. You can connect your Xero organisation, run an audit of your existing supplier data, and see what surfaces, before committing to anything.
The ACCC reports that fewer than 13% of fraud victims report their losses. The problem is far larger than the official figures suggest. Protecting your outflows before fraud happens is always cheaper than recovering afterwards.
Start with OutflowGuard's free tier and see what your Xero data reveals.