Accounts payable controls: check invoices and supplier details before paying

Accounts payable means the money a business owes suppliers. Many losses are straightforward: paying for something nobody ordered or paying the same real invoice twice. The checks below use documents and approvals to catch these problems before money leaves. They reduce risk, but no manual process can guarantee it will catch every fake invoice or duplicate payment.

The false billing pattern: an invoice that was never ordered

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre describes businesses receiving invoices for goods or services they never ordered. These may mention ordinary items such as directory listings, supplies or subscriptions. A busy employee may pay without checking because the invoice looks believable. Before paying, match it to a real purchase order or get approval from the person who authorized the purchase. Apply that check however genuine the paperwork looks.

The vendor-change pattern: a familiar supplier with new banking details

The Centre also warns about spear phishing: targeted messages that pretend to come from someone you trust. A message may pose as a supplier or senior employee and ask you to send future payments to a new bank account. The familiar name can make it seem safe. Confirm every change to banking or payment details through a separate contact method you have checked independently. For example, call a known number. Do not just reply to the email requesting the change. Verify before sending any payment to the new account.

Preventing duplicate payments on genuine invoices

Duplicate payments can also be honest mistakes. An invoice may be entered twice, paid by both cheque and transfer, or sent again by the supplier and paid again. Before releasing a group of payments, check the supplier and invoice number for each one. Flag numbers already in the payment history. Regularly compare the detailed supplier-payment records, called the accounts payable subledger, with bank activity. Do not wait until year-end.

Why one person should not do all three steps alone

Separate three roles: entering the invoice, approving payment and releasing the money. Even when two or three people share several jobs, avoid letting one person control the whole payment alone. This is not about distrusting a colleague. A separate check helps catch mistakes or changes that the first person may not notice.

Exceptions happen — document them instead of skipping the control

Sometimes an urgent payment cannot wait for the full approval process. Do not simply ban every exception or let it pass without a record. Write down who approved it, why the usual process was skipped and who reviewed it afterward. Repeated, undocumented “just this once” payments can let fraud and duplicates through.

Bookwits can hold the approval task, the supporting document and the record of who signed off, so an exception has a visible trail instead of living only in someone's memory or a side conversation. It does not detect fraud, flag suspicious vendor changes, or move money itself — those judgment calls and the actual payment remain with the people and banking systems responsible for them.