Regardless of the type of organisation – if you process invoices – you are also processing duplicates. In many cases the percentage of duplicates made is small. However, when an organisation makes over £50m in annual invoice payments, that small percentage could translate as £50,000 per year. In other words, it’s likely that every year, the AP Manager is heading a department which is costing the organisation as much, if not more, than their annual salary.

And it’s not just organisations with sloppy accounting procedures which are exposed. In our findings, even those who run a tight ship can still run the risk of overpayments. While it’s likely to remain the case that duplicate payments cannot be eliminated, an organisation’s exposure to them can be significantly reduced by adhering to a handful of relatively straightforward procedures. In addition, by the application of best-in-class bolt on solutions, such as those offered by FISCAL Technologies, these errors can be picked up, prior to the payments being made.

There are many reasons for making duplicate payments & invoicing errors, but one of the most consistent is basic human error. When an organisation relies on a variety of staff to input data, or simply has an overwhelming volume of invoices to process, a total avoidance of error is impossible.
 

Most accounting systems are set up to recognise only one type of error, flagging where the invoice numbers don't match, however the reality is that there are around 50 different checks that should be made on each invoice to ensure they are completely error free. For example misrepresenting a zero with the letter O, or the letter I with the number one, or a space where there shouldn’t be one. These slip through most accounting systems, and go unnoticed. And while some suppliers will return overpayments, others will not, or will take a long time to do so – undermining  supplier relationships along the way.

The 10 Most Common Reasons for Making Duplicate Payments

■ Human error – supplier and AP team
■ Use of temporary staff
■ Merged or Out of Date Master Supplier Files
■ Scanning Systems
■ Internal & External Fraud
■ Duplicate purchase orders
■ Deliberate misuse of system controls
■ Delays in paying suppliers
■ Re-issuing an invoice too swiftly
■ Upgrades to a new accounting system
 

In a more compliance heavy environment, the introduction of additional controls to monitor Accounts Payable transactions and protect the team and organisation from errors and fraud is essential. In addition, they will provide the added benefit of being able to improve processes and create cost efficiencies. If the motivation for investing in new technology was primarily to throw another rope of security around the system, organisations will be pleased to discover these otherwise hidden benefits, together with greater control and higher visibility. So while we can accept that duplicate payments are probably here to stay, we don’t have to accept the volume which slip through, or that they can't be almost immediately detected and swift retrieval made.