Find duplicate AP payments and risky vendor master changes
Matches AP invoices and vendor records to catch duplicate payments, recover overpaid cash, and tighten vendor setup controls.
The prompt
Help me find duplicate payments in accounts payable and clean up risky vendor master records.
AP invoice and payment data: [PASTE or describe columns - vendor ID, vendor name, invoice number, invoice date, amount, payment date, payment method, PO number]
Vendor master extract: [PASTE - vendor ID, name, address, tax ID, bank account (last 4 digits only), date created, last changed, changed by]
Review period: [DATES - duplicate recovery reviews often look back 12-24 months]
AP system and how invoices arrive: [e.g. "Bill.com, invoices emailed and also mailed", "NetSuite with OCR scanning"]
Duplicate payment tests (explain how to run each with spreadsheet formulas or filters):
- Same vendor, same amount, invoice numbers that differ only by formatting: leading zeros, dashes, spaces, suffixes ("1234" vs "INV-1234" vs "1234A").
- Same invoice number and amount paid to two different vendor IDs.
- Same amount and invoice date, different invoice numbers (statement paid as well as the invoice).
- Credit memos never applied, and vendor overpayments sitting as unapplied credits.
Vendor master tests:
- Duplicate vendor records: similar names, same tax ID, same bank account, or same address.
- Bank detail changes followed by a payment within 30 days, and who made and approved the change (a common business email compromise pattern).
- Vendors with no tax ID or W-9/equivalent, and inactive vendors (no activity in 12+ months) that are still open.
Return:
1. An exceptions table: Test | Vendor(s) | Invoices/payments | Amount at risk | Why flagged | Next step (request credit / verify bank change / merge or inactivate record).
2. Total potential recovery, ranked by amount.
3. A short, neutral email to request a refund or credit from a vendor for a confirmed duplicate.
4. Control fixes: duplicate-check settings in the AP system, call-back verification on bank changes using a number already on file, periodic vendor master cleanup.
Never put full bank account or tax ID numbers in the data you paste. A flag is a lead, not a finding - confirm against the invoice and payment records before contacting a vendor or drawing conclusions about anyone.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
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How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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