Duplicate Payments: How Software Can Save Your Business Millions

Accounts payable audits are used by many companies to cut back on unnecessary costs which may slip between the cracks within a busy organization. If a company suspects it is paying too much, expert recovery audit software can identify duplicate payments and disparities between payments negotiated and payments received. Usually, this software is installed alongside existing accounting software, and can be run on a regular basis to search for and analyse unnecessary payments or over-payments. Over time, these recovered payments often add up to millions of pounds. The software works across various departments, making sure that system disparities between accounting or data entry are identified and either abolished or accounted for by those dealing with finance.

A full-scale accounts payable audit will also involve accounts payable auditors coming in to the organization to talk with staff, inspect systems, and make recommendations for doing things in a different way in order to prevent losses and overpayments before they occur. However, such an audit is not needed frequently. Reliable recovery audit software can run on its own once it is installed, showing results to staff in a clear and readable way, and automatically implementing necessary changes. Companies are usually encouraged to make corrective claims as soon as possible after the incorrect payment is made: during a delay, a supplier may go out of business, become difficult to contact, or simply spend the duplicate payments or overpayments made to them.

Often savings are made by identifying duplicate claims and incorrect statement claims by vendors. These are not necessarily deliberate attempts at fraud or incorrect payments: busy people, on both the supply and payments side, can make errors. Especially in a big organization, changes in complex invoicing systems, staff turnover and the structure of the company can mean that many payments slip through the net. Meanwhile unclaimed cheques, problems with incorrect currency conversion, application of taxes, VAT and discount offers, all cause problems.

Computers, however, have no margin of human error, which is why many companies opt for the forensic accuracy of recovery audit software. Precise data analysis is a sophisticated way to investigate and correct historical overpayments, and to make recommendations for avoiding error in the future. And if there is fraud going on at some point, in the company or with a supplier, the sooner it’s rooted out the better. The larger the organization, the more money they usually save by doing an accounts payable audit.

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Accounts payable audit is smart financial sense

How much oversight do you really have over your accounts? You might have a good idea of what is coming in and going out every week, but what do you know of the detail? The fact is that it would be impossibly time-consuming to have every payment you make or receive compared against invoices, statements and other paperwork. That’s why duplicate payments, fraud and other errors can cost businesses so much. The more transactions you make, the more money you are likely to be wasting due to payments that are unnecessary. An accounts payable audit helps you to pinpoint where the leaks are in your system, throwing up warning signals when it seems like you have paid customers or suppliers when you shouldn’t have done. Recovery audit software allows you to claw back what you have lost over time.

Often the problem will be innocent enough. The average invoice might have something like twelve fields of data in it. Fill out or copy one of these incorrectly and the result could be an inaccurate payment – perhaps too much, perhaps too little, perhaps something that has been paid before. The mistake could have happened at your end or when the invoice was created. However, in some cases it’s more sinister than this. Unscrupulous suppliers might double-send an invoice, knowing that you don’t have the systems in place to catch such events. The amount might be familiar, and so it goes through the accounts without a second thought.

Duplicate payments and other forms of overpayment can total a significant fraction of a company’s turnover. If you engage in large volumes of small transactions, then even a small proportion of these will start to make a hole in your profit margin – and could mean the difference between sinking and staying afloat. Carrying out an accounts payable audit will often pay for itself the first time you do it. However, you should use recovery audit software as soon as possible, because the longer you leave it the lower the chances of reclaiming your money. Companies go out of business, and individuals die or move away. If this has happened then realistically there is little chance of being compensated. Perhaps more importantly, you need to know what is going wrong at the moment – it won’t just be past mistakes. There may be instances of ongoing fraud you need to protect yourself against, or cases where repeated problems occur month after month, and cost you more and more as you go on.

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Bacs payments simplify your accounts

It wasn’t so long ago that book-keeping was carried out manually – it actually was book keeping – and payments were made by cash or cheque. This was complicated and laborious, and vulnerable to errors that could cost you and your organisation a significant amount of money. Not only that, but working with cash or cheques could be insecure and slow. Fortunately, with the advent and popularity of bacs, this is no longer the case. Bacs payments are fast and secure, and bacs software can be integrated with other accounting software – meaning that all of your book-keeping practices can be neatly brought together so that there is no ambiguity and no surprises.

Bacs, or bankers automated clearing system, has been around for decades now but has only relatively recently been adopted on a large scale. Until a few years ago it was common for employers – particularly smaller ones – to pay workers in cash or by cheque. In the 21st century there is no need for this, or for the problems it brings. Bacs payments mean that you do not have to keep large quantities of cash on the premises. Neither do you have to wait to have cheques countersigned, or have to wait for them to clear. Bacs is not instant, but it is reliable. (In fact, in many cases bacs payments will go through in just minutes, rather than the three-day standard. In any case, if you need expedited payments then the SWIFT system is available for an additional fee.)

You may be able to get by, just about, on your own without bacs. However, issues typically arise when you try to mix old with new – when you are paid by cash or cheque but your accounts are automated with bacs software, or when you don’t use bacs payments but clients and suppliers do. In these cases it is easy for payments to be overlooked, perhaps because one or other of you isn’t used to dealing with cash or paying in cheques, or else isn’t set up to check accounts online and keep track of their cash-flow electronically. Since bacs has become the standard and most businesses and other organisations now use it, it makes sense to move across to this system. The savings of time and money it brings should quickly pay for any one-off costs to your accounts department and will future-proof your organisation.

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Recovery audit software protecting company assets

Mistakes are rarely, or maybe never possible to eradicate entirely. There are always things that with hindsight we would have done in a different way, a turn of events that we would rather reverse. And luckily, mistakes that happen in genuine error where it seems fate has conspired against someone are usually quickly forgiven. There are instances, however, where errors are less easily glossed over. Take any instances involving our finances – a sudden loss of money, a mislaid or unpaid sum will provoke bad feeling, above all in these times of austerity where many people feel an extra urgent need to safeguard their assets. For those in business, accounts payable audit systems can help errors be avoided. When the books don’t add up, recovery audit software can rescue an unwelcome situation from getting out of check, while also identifying any duplicate payments effected. The last of these mistakes boils down to throwing money down the drain! A neglectful act at any time, especially in the current economic climate.

Even medium-sized businesses should avoid trusting a single person with the enormous responsibility of managing their accounts using excel spreadsheets, notepaper or a calculator. The margin for human error in this scenario is simply far too significant. Instead, companies – whether of global acclaim or local nature – should align themselves in embracing the best software that takes care of their accounting in the most streamlined of ways. Supplier fraud and compliance issues are two aberrant potentials in business that can be kept at bay once accounts teams start using accounts payable audit software. To put it simply, processes can be simplified by embracing this technology: control is increased and errors can almost always be prevented from happening.

An accounts payable audit can easily be approved. recovery audit software allows businesses to affirm themselves. Normally, a company will pay external auditors to help them identify any expensive over-payments made. But this is an expense that can be saved by the companies that decide, very sensibly, to internalise the process. Duplicate payments can be found within the company when the relevant software is used that draws the attention of accounting teams to any mistakes. Unfortunately many payees will not own up to receiving a payment twice over so it falls to the paying party to rectify such a costly mistake.

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Bacs: fast, easy, secure

bacs software has been around for decades now, but it still has not been universally adopted by businesses. This is odd when you consider the many advantages of making bacs payments, rather than older and less reliable or secure methods. There is still some suspicion about trusting computers to do your work for you, and people tend to be warier than ever where their money is concerned. The maxim holds that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but that weak link is generally down to human error. In practice, bacs is a fast and reliable way of making payments to suppliers and receiving them from customers. It can save you time and money, and reduce the errors and risk associated with handling cash and paying third parties by other means.

Bacs stands for bankers automated clearing software. Essentially it is an electronic payment of funds from your account to another party’s account. This can take up to three days, but can equally be almost instant. (There is another version, SWIFT, which is guaranteed same-day.) Even in the worst case scenario, then, bacs is as fast as paying in a cheque or cash. It has several advantages over and above that.

One of these is security. Making online payments means you do not have to hold cash on the premises. It also reduces the scope for fraud, since you will no longer be writing out cheques. Reliability is another. The money leaves your account straight away, so you know how much is left, and you are not likely to be caused cash-flow problems by people delaying paying in cheques and then the money leaving your account unexpectedly. Plus, once you have correctly entered a payee’s details once, they can be reused after that. Paying the wrong person and having to regain the money shouldn’t be an issue.

Bacs software can be used to time payments, and in conjunction with accounting software can be used to take care of payroll commitments – automating pay day and saving a huge amount of time and effort, as well as reducing the error inevitable in doing the job manually. Bacs payments and receipts can also be combined with auditing software to further reduce error and duplicate payments, resulting in surprising savings for most businesses. In conclusion, there are several reasons to use bacs and few to ignore it.

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How to reduce errors in your accounts payable audit

The accounts payable audit is a necessary procedure in most workplaces.  However skilled and careful accounts teams are, duplicate payments and other errors are bound to occur, and these can end up costing a huge amount of money. Many businesses use professional recovery auditors, but these often charge very high fees.  If it is possible to empower your own in-house Accounts Payable teams to deal with the recovery auditing, you may be able to save money and improve internal processes.  This can now be achieved thanks to recovery audit software.

The software finds duplicate payments, invoicing errors, compliance issues and supplier fraud.  Because it can be used by Accounts Payable teams, it not only increases control but also improves processes, thus preventing future errors from happening.  Using a combination of search algorithms and pattern matching technology, the software provides a detailed report of potential duplicate payments and errors that may have been made.  The benefits of using this technology are widespread.

The software allows you to pre-process your upcoming payments, so that you should never have to pay a duplicate invoice again.  You can audit all your past payment data in one easy step, and any money recouped through recovery will go straight to your bottom line, increasing your profit.  Significantly, the software shows you the reason for each duplicate, enabling you to improve your processes and prevent it from happening in the future.  It is often a good thing to regain control of your accounts payable audit process – it may be satisfying to see an outside team of experts come in and oversee the process, but the knowledge and overview that can be achieved from conducting this process in-house is invaluable.

Furthermore, surprisingly little training is needed to use the software.  Anyone in the Accounts Payable team can use it, and there is no need for any auditing qualifications.  There are therefore no retraining fees.  Indeed installation and ownership also incur fairly little by way of cost.  Training and installation is very quick, and designed to work immediately.  Free online training is provided annually to ensure that ownership costs are as low as possible.

Recovery audit software really can revolutionise the way you conduct your accounts payable audit.  The process of checking for duplicate payments and other errors can tell you a lot about how the department works and how it can improve, so surely it makes perfect sense to conduct this process using your own existing team.

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