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Duplicate Invoice Check – Part 1

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Introduction:

When I was sent on my first assignment on starting out my career as an apprentice with an Auditing firm, the first instruction that was handed out was to cross check all the Invoices with their Purchase orders and the GR documents.

If all the documents were in place they had to be marked with a green tick. And if by any chance any instance was noticed wherein all the documents were not in place, it was a probable duplicate invoice posted in the system and it had to be marked with a red mark to be digged in further.

At that time, I used to wonder if there was any automated system to do this manual task or even better to prevent any of this from happening, it would have been great.

SAP has an answer to address this issue.

Object of the document:

This document is an attempt to analyze the issue of duplicate invoice postings and ways to prevent them.

The document covers:

Brief introduction to Duplicate Invoices

Possible reasons for Duplicate Invoice Postings

Holistic approach to be adopted to prevent Duplicate Invoice Postings

Detailed overview of the processes available in SAP to prevent Duplicate Invoice Postings

Example illustrating the duplicate invoice check process in SAP

Duplicate Invoices:

Duplicate Invoice postings happen when a single invoice received from a vendor is posted in the system more than once and consequently paid more than once.

Reasons for Duplicate Invoice Posting:

Duplicate Invoices might be posted in the SAP system because of various reasons such as:

Vendors sending invoices more than once because of delay in payments or misplacement of invoices

Invoices posted twice because of simple inefficiency of accounting staff

Duplicate Invoices posted by staff with an intention to defraud the organization

Duplicate Invoice Posting which can be prevented:

Duplicate invoice postings and consequent payments made as a result of AP staff colluding with vendors with an intention to defraud the organization would require targeted efforts to detect and prevent.

In cases other than the above, duplicate invoice postings can be prevented by adopting the inbuilt features and processes in SAP.

Holistic Approach to Prevent Duplicate Invoice Postings:

Implementing the inbuilt processes in SAP for checking Duplicate Invoice Postings will not eliminate the risk of duplicate invoice posting arising because of collusion of AP staff to commit fraud.

But it will certainly help in making the system more robust and reduce the chances of duplicate entries because of reasons other than fraud.

A holistic approach to mitigate the risk of duplicate invoice postings includes:

Restricting the access to create vendor masters to authorized people only and preferably staff from non-AP functions

Putting in place framework for preventing creation of duplicate vendors

Creating a framework for identifying and blocking vendors that do not have any transactions in say, previous three months

Making certain fields like Bank Account Number, Alternate Payee etc. in the vendor master as sensitive fields, requiring approval by authorized persons, for making changes

Use the PO process for most, if not all procurements

Use the three way check (Purchase Order, Goods Receipt and Invoice Verification)

Limit the usage of Non-PO processes for procurement

Adopting the process of parking, posting and approving of invoices by different users, to record invoices.

Making the Header Reference Number field as a mandatory field for all the document types used for posting vendor invoices

Making requisite configuration settings to achieve the duplicate invoice checks in case of Logistics Invoices.

Finally, creating programs for identifying duplicate payments which have passed through despite the best efforts

Processes to be adopted in SAP to carry out a check for Duplicate Invoice Posting:

In SAP there is an inbuilt check for ensuring that duplicate invoices are not posted.

The check can be achieved by a combination of the following:

Vendor Master data maintained with Indicator for duplicate invoices and credit memos checked

Message to be displayed on entering a duplicate invoice should be maintained as – Error Message Type

Additional parameters configured in SPRO to control the fields to be checked in case of Logistics Invoice Verification

Making the Reference document number field as a mandatory field for all the document types used for posting vendor invoices

Maintain the field – Check Flag for Double Invoices and Credit Memos (LFB1-REPRF), as mandatory, for the account groups being used for vendors

Duplicate Invoice Check – Relationship with Invoice Type:

The Duplicate Invoice check carried out by the system will depend upon whether the invoice is a:

FI Document or

Logistics Invoice document

Process Flow of Duplicate Invoice Check depending upon Invoice Type:

Fields checked in case of Logistics Invoice Verifiaction:

In case of Logistics Invoice, the following six fields would be checked to identify duplicate invoices in standard SAP:

Company Code

Vendor

Currency

Gross Invoice Amount

Reference document number

Invoice Date

Out of the above fields, there is an option available to skip the checking of any of the following three fields while trying to identify duplicate invoices:

Company Code

Reference document number

Invoice Date

This can be acheived by carrying out the requisite configuration in the transaction – OMRDC.

Whether the duplicate invoice checks would consider the fields Company Code, Reference Document Number and Invoice Date would depend upon whether these fields are configured as activated or deactivated in OMRDC.

Screenshot of Duplicate Invoice Check Configuration:

Fields checked in case of FI Invoices:

The fields to be checked to identify duplicate invoices in the case of FI invoices depend upon whether the reference document number is filled or not.

Reference document number is NOT filled up:

In the cases where the reference document number field is not filled up, the following fields would be checked to identify duplicate invoices:

Company Code

Vendor

Currency

Invoice Date

Amount in document currency

Reference document number is filled up:

In the cases where the reference document number field is filled up, the following fields would be checked to identify duplicate invoices:

Company Code

Vendor

Currency

Invoice Date

Reference document number

Illustration of Duplicate Invoice Check:

SAP Configuration – Define the field Double invoice validation as mandatory field:

Maintaining the field status of the field – Double invoice validation as a required entry field will ensure that whenever a vendor master is created the field Check Flag for Double Invoices or Credit Memos in the Payment Data tab of the company code segment of the vendor master is always checked.

Screenshot of Field Status of Double Invoice validation field marked as mandatory:

Master data – Maintain Vendor Master:

Screenshot of Vendor Master Data:

SAP Configuration – Change Message Control:

Maintain the message – Check whether document has already been entered under number & & & as an Error message type.

This will put a hard stop to the process of duplicate invoice being posted in the system.

If the message is not maintained as an error message the system will display the message as a warning or information and allow the user to go ahead and post the duplicate invoice.

Screenshot of Error Message maintained:

SAP Configuration – Maintain Document Type:

Maintain the field – Reference Document Number (XBLNR) in all the document types used for posting vendor invoices as requiring an entry while posting invoices.

This will make the user mandatorily enter a Vendor Invoice number in the field. This will aid in the process of duplicate invoice check in the system.

Screenshot of Document Type with Reference document number field marked as mandatory:

Transactional data 1 – for illustrating Duplicate Invoice Check process:

Post an Invoice against a vendor.

In the example an invoice is posted against a vendor with the following parameters:

Company Code – 0001

Vendor – TESTVENDOR

Currency – EUR

Invoice Date – 19.12.2012

Reference document number – DUPL1

Screenshot of Document entered

A document is posted with number 1900000005 as displayed above.

Transactional data 2 – for illustrating Duplicate Invoice Check process:

Try to post a Duplicate Invoice against the same vendor with the same parameters as already mentioned above.

In this example an invoice is tried to be posted against the same vendor with the identical input parameters as already entered for document – 1900000005:

Company Code – 0001

Vendor – TESTVENDOR

Currency – EUR

Invoice Date – 19.12.2012

Reference document number – DUPL1

After entering the input parameters when the save button is clicked an error message is displayed – Check whether document has already been entered under number 0001 1900000005 2012

Error Message Screen Shot:

For further details and illustrations please refer to the SCN document – http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35424

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Assigned Tags

FIN (Finance)

SAP ERP

double invoice verification

duplicate invoice check

enterprise resource planning

fi invoice posting

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27 Comments

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Yoel Tovi

January 6, 2014 at 6:46 am

Thank you!

Very clear and informative.

Like 0

Former Member

February 19, 2014 at 7:57 am

Hi Ajit,

A very good explanation. I have a question, would it be possible to do this check combining both FI&MM incoices.?

I mean, if an invoice is entered through MIRO and if the same is also entered through FB60, will system still checks?

I know it is more from the process side rather than system control, wanted to check if this is possible in SAP.

Thanks

Vijay

Like 0

Former Member

February 20, 2014 at 7:28 am

Hi,

It is very helpful and detailed,

Devendra

Like 0

Former Member

February 28, 2014 at 9:43 am

Hi,

Great information with explanation.

I too have query like Vijay that would it be possible to do this check combining both FI (FB60)& MM invoices(MIRO)?

Thanks

Supriya Kadam

Like 0

Mehmet Ozgur Unal

March 20, 2014 at 11:06 pm

hi Ajit,

Nice presentation, thanks ..

Like 0

Amith A

April 23, 2014 at 3:11 am

Dear Ajith very good document Yaar , keep it up

Like 0

Sreeja Sreekumar

April 23, 2014 at 4:08 am

Hi Ajith

Its really a simple , but good document.

Thank you

Sreeja

Like 0

Former Member

May 17, 2014 at 1:22 pm

Hi Ajit,

Really a very good document.

Regards,

Umamageshwaran.S

Like 0

Former Member

May 29, 2014 at 7:07 am

Hi Ajit,

Great Efforts thanks for sharing informative documents

thanks

Trinath

Like 0

Shekhar Gaikwad

June 3, 2014 at 8:53 am

Hi,

In our case vendor issues same invoice number series in their new financial year, therefore we receive same invoice number with different invoice date. We have done Message no. 117 as error message, but MIRO is not allowing same invoice number with different Invoice date.

How we can avoid error message for same invoice number with different invoice date.

Please help.

Like 0

Former Member

July 3, 2014 at 3:35 pm

Hello all,

Do you know how I can tell if invoices are already processed in Cockpit without me checking FB03?

Thanks for your help.

Like 0

Former Member

September 16, 2014 at 11:11 am

Good, I like....

Like 0

Former Member

September 23, 2014 at 9:02 pm

Hi All,

I have a problem in GL,regaring one entry posted Twice. So it leads to duplication in GL.

Please give solution to avoid sigle entry posted at twice in GL (SA & AC Entries - T-code for entry FB50 and FBS1).

Thanks,

Madhusudhanan.

Like 0

Siva Krishna

March 19, 2015 at 6:28 am

Hi Ajit,

Nice document you prepared.

Like 0

Former Member

March 19, 2015 at 7:16 am

Very nice document

Like 0

Former Member

April 24, 2015 at 4:07 am

Thank you for sharing. This is a very nice document.

Like 0

irala reddy

May 27, 2015 at 12:36 pm

Good and Elaborate document.

Like 0

Malka Samarasinghe

October 9, 2015 at 6:43 am

Hi;

Nice document.. Thanks..

I have a quary on mainataining the "double invoice check" field mandatory. It is not working with the same configuration. Cant we do the same through a screen varient.

Thanks;

Malka

Like 0

Shekhar Gaikwad

October 16, 2015 at 2:36 am

Dear Malka,

There are 2 mandatory steps.

1] Make double invoice check field mandatory for vendor master data.

2] In T-code OBA5 Area M8 Message 108 needs to maintained as Error message.

This is working at our end.

Thanks,

Shekhar Gaikwad.

Like 0

Omer Arshadi

November 11, 2016 at 5:09 am

Hi,

Want to ask if there is any standard configuration available for restricting ' posting of duplication invoice via. FB60/MIRO on different dates.

Example 1:

Invoice date : 11.11.2016 Ref. : 123 Posting date : 11.11.2016

Example 2 :

Invoice Date : 12.11.2016 Ref. : 123 Posting Date : 12.11.2016

Regards, Omer

Like 0

Former Member

February 1, 2017 at 11:23 pm

What's happend if I post a invoice with a Purcharse Order Item then I post another Invoice with same PO Item the online process check that but if I implement the BAPI_bapi_incominginvoice_create not.

Example

1.-

Invoice Ref. TEST_001 Purchase Order Item PO001 Item001

Invoice Created INV001

2.-

Invoice Ref. TEST_002 Purchase Order Item PO001 Item001

Invoice Created INV002

The bapi not check that, Could you know how to it possible and you know if that is an SAP issue?

Thanks so much.

Like 0

Agosto Edwin

March 17, 2017 at 1:44 pm

Thanks for sharing!

Like 0

Manivannan Karunanithy

September 30, 2017 at 7:57 am

Thanks for sharing this wonderful document and I cannot able to post the same invoice no. in the same date. But I could able to post the same invoice no. with different date for the same fiscal year.

For ex:

Case 1

Vendor no: 100001

Invoice date: 25.09.2017

Posting date: 25.09.2017

Ref: Testing01

Case 2

Vendor no: 100001

Invoice date: 26.09.2017

Posting date: 26.09.2017

Ref: Testing01

I just want to know that is there any possibility to restrict the same invoice no. for the same fiscal year. The same reference no.(Inv. No.) should not repeat at any case for the same vendor with same fiscal year. If we can able to restrict, kindly share me the document.

Thanks in advance

Like 1

Lorena Cruz Ardon

November 17, 2020 at 4:58 pm

Hi Manivannan Karunanithy

Did you find a solution? If so, could you share us? Thanks!

Lorena

Like 0

Former Member

October 19, 2018 at 4:31 am

Dear ,

Very good explanation,

Thanks & Regards

Zahid

Like 0

Usman Irfan

August 28, 2019 at 9:41 am

Thank you for this useful document. Duplications are blocked but this is happening in every t-code. Could anybody help me in applying this duplication check only in case of fb60 and not in any other tcode other than fb60?

Waiting for your response.

Thanks and regards

Usman

Like 0

Yasir Basheer

November 7, 2019 at 4:33 pm

Hi ,

I am trying to extract a report from SAP to identify potential duplicates. Could you please help me to identify all possible the combinations like, same invoice reference same amount, same amount same vendor ect.

Many thanks in advance

Like 0

Description	Transaction Code
Set Check for Duplicate Invoices	OMRDC

Description	Transaction Code
Define Screen Layout per Company Code (Vendors)	SPRO

Description	Transaction Code
Create/Change vendor master	FK01/FK02/XK01/XK02

Description	Transaction Code
Check Message Control	OBA5

Description	Transaction Code
Maintain/Change Document Types	OBA7

Description	Transaction Code
Enter Vendor Invoice	FB60

Description	Transaction Code
Enter Vendor Invoice	FB60