Procurement and Accounts Payable professionals tend to hold their cards close to the vest. They tend to be guarded and careful not to divulge too much information — it simply comes with the territory.

One of the problems every company has, but won’t talk about, are duplicate payments of supplier invoices. Paying the same invoice twice (or more) is not viewed kindly by management, auditors, etc.

Industry statistics indicate that in the typical company, .25% to 1.00% of all invoices are overpaid or paid multiple times. One company, who will remain nameless, recently paid a $200K invoice three times! Luckily the supplier kept returning the money.

The second uncomfortable topic is fraud.

As the economy has soured, fraud is being perpetrated (and discovered) at an alarming rate. Once again, the prevailing attitude is “not in my company — such a thing could never happen here.” But, it can and will, if you don’t have the right internal controls in place.

These are both symptoms of an out-of-control P2P process. An automated system with the proper security, approval levels, and audit trails can, and will, prevent these issues.

Although eliminating overpayments and fraud are rarely included in a P2P system ROI projection, the value of eliminating these “dirty little secrets” will more than justify the investment.

This comes from a recent issue of CFO Magazine, outlining methods of fraud prevention:

“If you test the waters and see that nobody is watching, you will go ahead and pursue a fraud further,” warns Managing Director Ken Yormark of LECG, a firm that conducts fraud investigations around the world. “If you have the right controls in place and someone says stop, you quell the urge. Stamping down that desire is the number-one way to prevent fraud.”

The internal controls and spend visibility established in a properly configured P2P system is a great way to prevent fraud in your organization.