New study says almost 1 in 10 invoices are double-paid: Here’s help

New research shows nearly 1 in 10 invoices are duplicates, meaning your A/P department might be double-paying vendors without even realizing it. That’s an issue that negatively impacts your cash flow, and it must be resolved ASAP.

After reviewing $500 million of its customers’ invoices over a 12-month period, A/P automation provider OpenEnvoy found that 8.5% of the invoices companies received were duplicates.

In all, that added up to over $42 million in unnecessary billings. This problem most commonly happened with companies that worked with logistics providers and contract manufacturers.

Even more concerning: OpenEnvoy noticed this trend across the board with companies of all sizes, so it’s not just huge corporations or enterprises that are losing money due to duplicate payments.

Prevent issues with duplicate invoices

It can be tough for A/P to double-check every single invoice, especially with fewer personnel and more invoices to manage in a tight window of time. Often, A/P ends up performing quick spot checks to audit a handful of invoices that happen to catch their eyes.

But if there’s no time for A/P to closely review each invoice that crosses their desks, this introduces the potential for duplicate invoices to continue falling through the cracks, especially if you’re still relying on manual payment processes.

Vendors and suppliers have no incentive to solve this problem. They don’t mind being double-paid and may not even bring the issue to your attention. So, it’s on A/P to ensure companies aren’t paying twice for the same supplies and services.

That’s why automation is important. It’s particularly critical to invest in preventive finance solutions that have the ability to automatically verify every invoice you receive. Automated systems can more easily root out a duplicate invoice than even the most careful A/P pro.

Automation can also allow A/P to quickly flag their vendors and suppliers and alert them to the duplicate invoice, leaving less room for billing disputes since the proof is clearly visible.

The money invested in an advanced automated solution to manage your company’s invoices electronically can quickly pay for itself if it prevents your company from consistently losing money due to double-billing. It can also help A/P boost efficiency in other ways since they’ll spend less time manually entering and reviewing invoice info before payment.