Payment requests

A supplier changed bank details. What should your dental front desk do?

By SentryGuard Dental · October 18, 2026

Pause the payment change and verify it through an established contact route. A familiar email thread is not enough to approve a new destination for money.

Start with a realistic moment

It is the end of the morning. Patients are checking out, the phone is ringing, and an invoice arrives from a familiar dental supplier. The amount looks right. Only the bank details have changed. This fictional example is a good huddle topic because the task feels routine: the person handling it may be trying to finish a legitimate payment, not make a security decision.

Use a contact route you already trust

Find the supplier’s established number in your approved records, rather than using the number in the new message or invoice. Verify the requested change with the appropriate contact and follow your practice’s approval process before updating payment instructions. The FBI recommends independently verifying payment changes; replying to the same email does not provide an independent check.

A simple front-desk script

“We verify changes to payment instructions through our established contact process. I will ask our payment approver to confirm the change before we update anything.” This keeps the response calm and makes the process, rather than personal suspicion, the reason for the pause. If your role does not include payment approval, route the request to the person who has that authority.

Make the handoff clear

A useful internal note records when the request arrived, which established contact route was used, who confirmed the request and who approved the change. Keep financial details in your approved payment system. Do not place bank details or patient information into a general team discussion document. If the request cannot be verified, tell the approver what remains unresolved rather than guessing.

Try this at your next huddle

Ask: “Where would a new hire find the trusted supplier number, and who can approve a payment change?” If the answer lives only in one person’s memory, assign someone to make the approved process easier to find. Practice the pause with a fictional invoice; do not use a real bank account in the exercise.