• Before paying an invoice from a fax, review the vendor payment history to see if the invoice has already been paid. Often the use of a stamp "Fax invoice - payments reviewed" on the invoice reinforces the need for the review.

• Do not pay past due balances on statements without researching the payment history to ensure earlier payment was not made.

• Train your staff to ensure that invoices are properly approved before payment. It is essential that your staff understands how the system controls operate and they know not to circumvent the system without authorization. For example, they can't use the same invoice number for the same vendor, etc.

• Minimize the use of manual checks and invoices processed for payment without the customary review and approval process. This is often easier said than done.

• If multiple payment centers exist, including Treasury for wires and Payables for checks, periodically reconcile the payments to ensure that same invoice wasn't processed by multiple payment centers.

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