Duplicate Payment Prevention and Recovery Kit

Duplicate payments happen because invoice intake, coding, and approval are messy. Recovery happens only when someone owns it.

This kit installs a beginner-safe operating system:

• prevention controls (matching rules and invoice standards)
• early detection (exception review)
• recovery workflow (outreach and evidence)
• measurable KPI cadence

What you will produce

1. Duplicate payment prevention checklist
2. Matching rule guidance (what to match and when)
3. Weekly exception review agenda
4. Recovery outreach scripts
5. Recovery evidence tracker

Prevention controls (minimum viable)

• require invoice numbers and vendor references consistently
• enforce invoice standards (line-level clarity)
• match on vendor + invoice number + amount + date window
• flag suspicious patterns (round-dollar, rush requests, new bank details)

Recovery workflow (minimum viable)

Stages:

1. identify duplicate
2. confirm evidence (invoice + payment record)
3. vendor outreach and credit request
4. apply credit or refund
5. log outcome and root cause
6. update controls to prevent repeat

Templates

A) Weekly exception review agenda (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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Weekly Duplicate Payment Exceptions Review (15 minutes)

1) Potential duplicates flagged this week
2) Confirmed duplicates and recovery status
3) Root causes (missing invoice number, vendor master issue, urgent bypass)
4) Control updates and owners

B) Vendor recovery email (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
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Subject: Duplicate Payment Identified — Refund or Credit Request

Hi [Vendor Contact],

We identified a duplicate payment related to invoice [#].

Details:
- Invoice:
- Payment 1 date and amount:
- Payment 2 date and amount:

Request:
Please confirm and issue a refund or apply a credit to the next invoice.

Thanks,
[Name]