Duplicate invoice patterns worth hunting every quarter
· Clara Hughes
Duplicates rarely announce themselves as exact clones. More often they arrive with a tweaked invoice number, a rounded amount, or a second submission after a credit note that never posted. Simple exact-match filters miss those.
Quarterly, run fuzzy matches on supplier, amount within a small band, and invoice date within a window. Review anything paid twice or paid then credited without a clear commercial reason. Include invoices that sat unmatched for weeks then cleared in a bulk journal.
Segregation helps: the person who can add a vendor should not be the only person who can force-match an invoice. Where systems allow one-click overrides, log them and review the log — not just the policy.
A reconciliation review that includes a duplicate hunt often pays for itself in recovered credits and tighter vendor master hygiene.