Detecting Duplicate Invoices

The High Cost of Duplicate Invoices: Why Prevention Is Better Than Audits

Duplicate invoices might be a small percentage of non-compliance, but their impact is wasted money and completely avoidable. According to the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM), up to 3.6% of invoices processed by large companies are duplicates. For E&P companies handling tens of thousands of invoices annually, that seemingly small percentage can translate into millions of dollars in unnecessary payments.

How Duplicate Invoices Slip Through the Cracks

In high-volume environments, duplicate invoices can occur for several reasons:

• Clerical errors: Vendors or internal staff mistakenly submit the same invoice more than once.

• Invoice number changes: Slight variations in invoice numbers bypass simple duplicate checks.

• Manual processing mistakes: Overloaded AP teams may unintentionally approve duplicates, especially under tight deadlines.

The Hidden Costs of Duplicate Payments

Paying a duplicate invoice isn’t just a minor error—it has significant financial implications:

• Direct financial loss: Overpayments directly impact cash flow and operational budgets.

• Cost of recovery: Reclaiming funds requires time-consuming collections efforts and often incurs legal fees.

• Collections risk: If the vendor is uncooperative or goes out of business, recovering funds becomes nearly impossible and can incur time and resource consuming efforts.

Year-End Audits

Relying on end-of-year audits to catch duplicate invoices is inefficient and costly:

• Delayed discovery: By the time duplicates are found, the funds have already been paid out.

• High labor costs: Manual audits are time-intensive and often require expensive third-party support.

• Low recovery rates: Even with clawback clauses, success rates for recouping overpayments are typically low.

Why Simple Invoice Number Checks Fail

A common misconception is that checking for duplicate invoice numbers is enough to prevent overpayments. While some alterations to invoice data may be inadvertent some cases can be intentional. In either case, unfortunately, vendors may:

• Send slightly altered invoice numbers that avoid detection.

• Submit duplicates under different purchase order numbers or service dates.

Effective detection requires using multi-dimensional checks to find find duplicates.

How Prolarus Stops Duplicate Payments Before They Happen

Prolarus offers a proactive solution that prevents duplicate payments before they occur:

• Multi-dimensional matching: Goes beyond invoice numbers, analyzing multiple fields to identify duplicates.

• Real-time alerts: Flags potential duplicates before payments are processed.

• AI-driven pattern recognition: Detects subtle similarities that manual checks often miss.

Protect Your Bottom Line

In a highly competitive and regulated industry like oil and gas, it is important to maximize margins at every turn and opportunity. Waiting for an end-of-year audit to catch duplicate payments is both inefficient and risky. Solutions like Prolarus help you identify and stop duplicates in real time, protecting your bottom line and ensuring financial accuracy.

Ready to eliminate duplicate payments? Contact us today to learn how Prolarus can safeguard your accounts payable process.