In today’s data-driven world, organizations are constantly grappling with the challenge of managing large volumes of information. This is especially true in the realm of finance, where invoices account for a significant proportion of B2B transactions.
However, invoice duplication is a particularly challenging issue because it may lead to overpayment. This leaves holes in accounting, impacts cash flow and working capital management, and may constitute a serious failure under financial regulatory codes.
Duplicate invoices may be generated inadvertently. There are a variety of reasons, most commonly due to supplier system errors, manual invoicing mistakes, glitches in e-invoicing systems, or miscommunication between departments. These can lead to duplicate payments. Such extra outgoings may well be the result of honest errors, but that does little to lessen the impact should a business find that its finances have become strained.
Invoice duplication is also sometimes motivated by fraud. This involves criminal activity, where multiple copies of the same invoice are deliberately submitted to elicit duplicate payments. This fraud may exploit weaknesses in payment processing systems or internal controls. Whether they result from honest mistakes or wilful fraud, duplicate payments put pressure on cash flow, reduce profitability, disrupt efficiency, and damage supplier relationships.
The sheer volume of invoices seen at enterprise scale, where as many as 1.5 million invoices may be processed in a single financial year, means some duplicates have a good chance of slipping through, whatever safeguards are in place to detect them manually. A research study commissioned by SAP Concur suggests a duplication rate of around 1.3% or about 13 in every thousand.
Duplicate invoices tend to cause some highly undesirable effects, including:
Duplicate matching software is a powerful tool that helps enterprises to address these challenges. The technology uses sophisticated algorithms to identify and flag duplicate invoices. Increasing numbers of AP team managers find the case for adopting cloud-based duplicate matching services compelling. The primary benefits of duplicate matching software are:
In addition to the general benefits of cloud-based duplicate matching services, there are many specific features that make them a compelling choice for organizations. For example, cloud-based duplicate matching services typically offer:
Enterprise AP departments do a better job of managing the risk of overpayment and fraud due to invoice duplication with APMatching. Our cloud-based duplicate matching service is a compelling choice for large businesses. Enterprises reduce the costs, improve efficiency and increase the accuracy of their invoice processing.
Duplicate-Matching is one of the complementary APMatching solutions that lets enterprises automate invoice processing to close the loop in AP. Consider the benefits also of:
Take a personalized demo with one of our representatives, and we’ll show you how the software eliminates tedious, time-consuming manual invoice processing and automates duplicate invoice detection.
If you like what you see, we’ll give you full support so that you can more fully evaluate APMatching with a Proof of Concept (PoC), demonstrating how effective it is using your own data.
Book a live demo to see the end-to-end processes on live customers systems and learn how easy it is to try this for free on a Proof of Concept.
Book a Live Demo to see the end-to-end processes on live customers systems and learn how easy it is to try this for free on a Proof of Concept.