Introduction
The Institute of Internal Auditors tell us that duplicate payments and overpayments account for approximately 1 in 1000 of all invoices being processed which equates to 0.1% of payments being duplicated. If your organisation spends £10 million or more annually then you are likely to be losing thousands of pounds due to the duplication of invoices being paid. As the frequency of invoices being processed increases, the problem can grow exponentially. Our audit, review and subsequent collections based on your historical financial data consistently result in immediate savings that can often be substantial.
The sheer volume of invoices can make duplicate payments inevitable in larger organisations. In our experience, duplicate payments occur for one or more of the following reasons:
- Suppliers being duplicated i.e. set up more than once
- Human error in keying invoices or invoice numbers
- Delayed payment has resulted in a re-issued invoice that may be hurried through due to perceived lateness of payment
- Staff turnover - new staff keying invoices a second time without knowledge of the previous
- Takeovers, mergers and reorganisations of contract
- Changes in systems and/or use of more than one system for payments duplicating previous payments from the old system
- Complex and time-consuming authorisation processes
- Deliberate circumvention of system controls in order to get an invoice through the system
What we do
We provide an expert 100% review of clients’ accounts payable transactions:
- Identifying potential duplicate payments
- Reviewing associated transactions to confirm subsequent clearance
- Validating potential duplicate payments back to copy invoices
- Collecting from the supplier on client’s behalf, if required
- Creating appropriate clearing documentation
Our approach is client-focused and flexible, based on the recognition that every organisation has unique processes and needs.
The process
- Obtain data: We work with your accounts and/or IT teams to ensure that the data we require is extracted quickly but comprehensively. The efficient confirmation of your accounts payable procedures enable us to ensure that all duplicate payments are identified and correctly matched off against credit notes, refunds and off-sets. We then focus on the remaining duplicates for collection.
- Conduct review: Our review are predominantly performed off-system, off-site and out of sight; in our experience, the time commitment from your staff will be limited to one or two days throughout the entirety of the assignment.
- Recover lost profits: We do not just identify potential duplicates, but recover them on your behalf; we also create appropriate documentation to reflect the collections in your ledgers. At no additional cost, we can also provide a variety of management reports, identifying historical errors, but also highlighting system weaknesses.