How do they arise?
Most companies believe that their own physical internal controls and integrated system controls prevent any possibility of duplicate or over-payments i.e. paying a supplier twice for the same product or service or indeed paying out more than the invoice amount.
Experience shows all too frequently that however efficient companies are, all will at some point make duplicate and/or overpayments.
Surveys have been carried out estimating that, in large companies, between 0.1 and 0.5 percent of all invoices may be processed twice. However, the majority of duplicated entries are corrected before any overpayment is made to the supplier.
The objective of our review is to identify any invoices processed and paid more than once and which still remain outstanding. Once recovered, these duplicates will directly benefit bottom-line profits and cashflow.
The following are common examples of how duplicate payments arise:-
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Human error caused by the sheer volume of transactions
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Complex and time consuming authorisation processes
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Deliberate circumvention of system controls
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Changes in systems
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The use of temporary staff
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Takeovers, mergers and reorganisations
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Delays in promptness of payments to suppliers
How can they be found?
In simple terms, with difficulty. A typical FTSE 100 retailer will process millions of invoices annually. Therefore, searching for duplicate payments is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
Working in partnership with Twice2much Limited (one of the UK's leading edge data analysis experts) we have developed sophisticated programs and acutely targeted processes to maximise recoveries for clients.
Please contact Richard Heasman to find out how we can help you recover duplicate payments.