Many companies use AP automation software to streamline invoice processing. These systems automate invoice data extraction and approval routing, allowing real-time visibility into invoice status. It automates the manual data entry process, checks for invoice duplication, and registers each payment at the time it’s made, updating your books automatically. Procurement or invoice payment software often has features that can spot fraud as it occurs by flagging suspicious or duplicate payments. While over 5% of corporate spending is lost to fraudulent procurement, employing cutting-edge tools reduces the risk and the likelihood of fraudulent activity. Limiting your vendor payment options to automated electronic payment forms reduces the likelihood of processing payments multiple times.
Vendor relationship strain
While it might not happen every day, those duplicate payments can cost your business thousands of dollars if not more. This post explains what you need to know about duplicate payments, including 4 simple tips to help prevent them. Ideally, you should automate your workflow through a What is bookkeeping procure-to-pay platform that uses AI to match, reconcile, process, and pay each invoice.
How AI is Used in Fraud Detection – Benefits & Risks
- This method provides 100% protection against duplicates when Synder is the exclusive tool in use.
- Some audit firms specialize in the detection of duplicate payments for their clients.
- For example, payments over $10,000 might need approval from both the department head and finance director.
- I’d be happy to help you understand why you might see double payment entries.
- If you find a duplicate payment was made unintentionally, then contact the recipient immediately and inform them about the issue.
- This document is an attempt to analyze the issue of duplicate invoice postings and ways to prevent them.
These controls include setting up approval hierarchies and segregation of duties, ensuring that multiple eyes review each payment request. By doing so, the likelihood of the same invoice being processed multiple times is significantly reduced. The detection of duplicate payments begins with a thorough examination of accounts payable records.
Reduced errors & improved accuracy
Across all industries and all companies, employees were sent home and how to prevent duplicate payments were expected to successfully do their jobs outside of their typical work processes and with limited resources. In the case of payables processes, so many invoices were previously coming in via mail. To work around that, companies were suddenly requesting invoices be sent through email.
- To avoid this, create a consistent, unique label to refer to this company in data entry and delete any other labels/names.
- Features like 2-way/3-way matching, real-time invoice tracking, and ERP integration also help ensure payment accuracy and control.
- Adjust your process so that invoices from those specific vendors are held for a few days before processing, to require a mandatory check against any duplicate invoices.
- Regular training sessions for AP staff help reinforce best practices and keep everyone alert to potential red flags.
- Here’s an essential guide to understanding and preventing duplicated payments—including 5 straightforward tips for reducing the risk.
- And best of all, it frees up your people to work on more value-added tasks”.
Regular accounts payable audits and reconciling invoices at the end of every month help the accounting team spot errors or possible problems. A clean audit trail also increases the accuracy of month-end reporting for teams creating financial statements. The following data points provide context to the broader challenges highlighted above and illustrate the tangible impact on AP metrics due to duplicate vendor payments. Duplicate payments in accounts Bakery Accounting payable often go unnoticed – until they start piling up into thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs. What begins as a minor oversight can quickly escalate into significant financial loss, strained vendor relationships, and disruptions to cash flow and reporting accuracy.
