Duplicate payments are a drain on the net profit of your business.Even if you do, it’s embarrassing to fix them. Duplicate payments are not often meant to happen but they do in growing organisations. Hence it is necessary to automate the invoice process to avoid duplicate payments.

What is Meant By Duplicate Payments?

A duplicate payment is issued to a vendor or supplier that has already been paid. It usually occurs due to mistakes, importantly a human error. They generally occur because of manual or partially automated accounts payable processes that do not detect the presence of previous payments or duplicate invoices.

The most common reason is if a vendor does not have a PO number or an invoice number. Although a manual system tracks these numbers, their absence will create a significant opportunity for duplicate payments.

Is it Possible to Identify Duplicate Payments?

A thorough review of accounts payable transactions will reveal duplicate payments, particularly if they are in an odd amount. Some verification firms specialize in detecting their customers. They generally charge a percentage of the money recovered from their surveys as a fee. Unfortunately, the most common way to find out about duplicate payments is when a provider calls or sends emails to report your mistake.

The best option is to avoid making those errors up front by integrating automation into your AP process.

Prevent Duplicate Payments by Automating Invoices

Automation of the account payable process includes comprehensive audit protocols to ensure all invoices are accurate and appropriate. They make the payment of duplicate or even false invoices virtually impossible. Automating and digitized invoice approvals make it easy to create invoice approval workflows that are aligned with Accounts Payable best practices.

This allows managers and other approvers to instantly view the invoice and the data surrounding the invoice. They are easily able to confirm and sign off on the invoice on any device around the world.

Bautomate’s AP automation solution also highlights the unknown vendors and alerts the affected managers regarding potential fraudulent activities. They are the most secure and fraud-proof means of paying invoices. AP automation provides you an accurate picture of who authorized the payments and the steps they went through to verify prior to approval.

With the automation of accounts payable, it is almost impossible to repeat a duplicate payment.

How can Bautomate Handle Duplicate Payments?

Regardless of the number of invoices you process, manual or semi-automated methods can always open the door to small mistakes, but this can be eliminated entirely with a fully automated solution.

Bautomate provides a custom tailored solution for invoice processing or any business payments all under one roof.