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Duplicate Invoice Paid

Marsha Galicia avatar
Written by Marsha Galicia
Updated yesterday

XBert Type: Standard

Accounting Software: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks

Country Restriction: All regions

Risk Type: Duplicate Risk

Business Function: Sales

Overview

The "Duplicate Invoice Paid" XBert identifies situations where a customer has paid multiple invoices that appear to be duplicates. These duplicate entries can inflate your sales figures, confuse your customers, and lead to operational or cash flow issues if not addressed quickly.

What it does

This XBert reviews all invoices with a status of Paid and looks for duplicates based on a unique combination of invoice attributes, including:

  • Customer name and ID

  • Invoice due date

  • Invoice code

  • Invoice amount

  • Currency

  • Line item descriptions

If more than one paid invoice shares these exact details, XBert flags it as a likely duplicate that has resulted in multiple payments for the same transaction.

How it works

XBert scans your invoice records and looks for matches in critical invoice data. When multiple Paid invoices are found with identical customer details, amounts, and descriptions, an alert is triggered. This enables you to take corrective action, such as issuing a refund or credit and correcting overstated revenue.

Example/Use Case

A bookkeeper returns from holiday and begins reconciling payments. While they were away, the account manager had already sent an invoice and received payment from Macks Earthworks. The bookkeeper, unaware, issues and records payment for a second identical invoice. Macks Earthworks is understandably frustrated when they’re chased again for a payment they’ve already made. Meanwhile, the business’s sales and cash flow reports are now inaccurate, which may impact decisions and tax reporting.

Accounting software

All major Australian-compatible accounting software (e.g., Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online).

Which countries it supports

All regions.

Processes

This alert falls under the ‘Sales (AR)’ category and helps protect against duplicate billing and revenue misstatements. To resolve this issue:

  • Review all Paid invoices flagged by XBert for the same customer and date.

  • Confirm whether the duplication was intentional (e.g. part of a recurring schedule) or accidental.

  • If accidental, contact your customer to explain the issue.

  • Issue a refund for the duplicate payment or apply it as a credit toward their next invoice.

  • Update your accounting records to reflect the corrected sales and payment figures.

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