How to stop duplicate invoices and accidental income inflation

Invoices. You’re probably drowning in them. It's easy to lose track and make errors. Are you raising duplicate invoices and overestimating your income, or that of your client's if you're a bookkeeper? Are you making decisions based on the inflated figures that could significantly hurt the business, like spending money that isn’t there? Your trading relationships can get damaged when you chase duplicate invoices that have already been paid.‍

XBert does all the hard work for you. Using AI and the latest in data science to analyse your Xero cloud accounting data, XBert detects duplicates, possible bookkeeping errors, anomalies and patterns. Invoices here, there and everywhere. Imagine you’ve signed up a new client to spend $20,000 each month with your business for the next 12 months. Sweet! Somehow there was a mix-up, and you invoiced the client twice. You have egg on your face, and your new client thinks you're disorganised, incompetent or that you're trying to get extra money out of them. They may get frustrated by your mistake, lose trust, and decide to take their business elsewhere.

But wait, there's more.

You committed to additional expenses next month because you thought your income was $20,000 more than it is going to be. What a mess! All it takes is a momentary distraction by you or your bookkeeper, and you can lose track and raise duplicate invoices. Next time you're working on the books and accounts for that customer, will you remember, or check, if you already sent the invoice?

If you’re a small business owner, you probably squeeze invoicing into a tiny corner of your already hectic day. You may not think to check whether an invoice has already been sent. You want to get the job done so you can power on with the other dozen tasks you have to complete. When you have multiple people are looking after your books, stepping in and out during the process, duplicates and errors can happen.

Bookkeepers are busy and have hundreds of entries to reconcile each day across all of their clients. They’re pressed for time and may not notice the duplicate. Duplicate invoices will overstate your sales. Your forecasted income is unreliable. Any decisions about purchasing, expansion and investment could have a significant, and potentially damaging, impact on your business.

Fortunately, there’s a fast and simple way to make sure you spot potential duplicate invoices raised before you have to deal with the consequences.

XBert in action

The XBert risk alert you receive states that you invoiced ACME Kitchen multiple times for the same amount of $10,450. XBert monitors the amount, due date, invoice code and line items to detect possible duplicates.

This invoice could be a duplicate, or it could also be a new recurring invoice. XBert advises you to review the DRAFT, SUBMITTED and APPROVED invoices raised for this contact and the associated amounts to ensure it should have been entered more than once. If this is a recurring invoice, this XBert alert can get filed. Invoices to this contact, for this amount and with matching criteria won't be detected as a duplicate in future.

Peace of mind knowing your sales and income is more accurate

With XBert, possible duplicate invoices raised get detected. You can perform checks before a duplicate is sent to your customer by mistake, saving you from embarrassment and the hassle of correcting and rectifying the problem. Your relationships remain intact since you aren't chasing customers for money they don't owe. Reports for sales and income aren't based on inflated figures. You have an accurate picture of the business’ financial health and can make informed choices. Picking up any duplicate invoices and bookkeeping errors are just some of the many risks XBert will find reviewing your accounting data multiple times a day. Using sophisticated algorithms, predictive analytics, and machine learning, XBert is there to detect business risks, saving you time and money.

XBert is an easy-to-use, powerful Xero add-on for business owners, finance teams, bookkeepers and accountants to stay a step ahead in business. If you're serious about business success, sync your accounting data with XBert. In minutes, you'll know the amount of money at risk and how to prevent losing it.

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