Unnecessary payments made due to duplicated invoices are a bigger problem than most organisations realise. Studies have shown nearly two thirds of UK finance professionals have received duplicate invoices, with a third ending up paying them, while other studies suggest duplicate payments make up approximately 1% of all invoices paid.
Accidentally paying the same invoice twice may not be a huge issue if it is an isolated event, but if it is a common occurrence over several years, it could cost organisations hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is still recoverable.
At a time when the financial impacts of Covid-19 are forcing both private and public sector organisations to revisit their expenditure, duplicated payments are not a mistake they can afford to make. Action needs to be taken sooner rather than later, or organisations risk continuing to make costly overpayments.
How do duplicated payments occur?
Organisations use trusted suppliers, but unnecessary payments continue to be made leading to potential loss of revenue … so why are you receiving duplicate invoices?
- Data entry errors – From the loss of concentration when manually processing hundreds of invoices a day
- Supplier duplicates – Duplicate suppliers in your systems may lead to duplicate invoices being generated
- Paying from multiple source documents – When two separate source documents are submitted for a single payment
- Invoices sent via different methods – Duplicates can occur if invoices are posted, faxed and/or emailed
- Lack of PO number – Duplicate payments may occur if the supplier does not include the PO number
How Can Liberata Help?
The Duplicate Payment Recovery Service from Liberata, identifies duplicate invoices that have been submitted for payment using a risk scoring mechanism to identify the highest risk items, enabling our finance teams to commence recovery action to ensure an accurate ledger position and improved cash flow for our clients.
Built using our cutting edge proprietary technology, the Duplicate Payment Recovery Service utilises a workflow with appropriate checks and balances to ensure that each potential duplication is validated, recorded, and actioned appropriately. Organisations can undertake the review on a completely risk-free basis, should no erroneous payments be identified then there is no fee for the service required.
To learn more or for a risk-free review contact us here.
