Duplicate payment
The same obligation paid to a vendor more than once.
Definition
A duplicate payment occurs when a company pays the same invoice or obligation twice — for example when an invoice is keyed into the system twice, a vendor is set up under two records, or a resent invoice with a slightly different reference number is processed as new. Duplicates are one of the most common sources of accounts payable leakage.
Why it matters
Duplicate payments directly reduce cash and margin. Because each individual duplicate can look legitimate, they are rarely caught by manual review and often surface only during a recovery audit months later.
How SpanFin helps
SpanFin flags same-vendor payments with the same amount and currency within a 30-day window, and same-amount payments across different vendors within 7 days — a common sign of a duplicate vendor record. Recurring schedules like rent are detected and suppressed so they are not flagged.
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