An accounts payable recovery audit checks whether supplier payments and credits reflect the commercial agreement. It brings paid invoices, payment history, contracts, purchase orders, receipts and supplier statements together to find overpayments and missed entitlements.
The recovery process continues after a discrepancy is found. Someone must validate the claim, contact the supplier, handle the response and confirm that the credit or refund has arrived. When these steps fall between AP, procurement and the supplier, a promising audit report can turn into another list of open tasks.
Duvo's payables audit carries approved findings through supplier follow-up and reconciliation. AI agents execute the process across the existing systems, people make the required decisions, and operator and executive dashboards show progress and outcomes. The Duvo Loop uses that history to improve how the next cycle runs.
Missed credits after payment
Three-way matching asks whether the invoice agrees with the purchase order and goods receipt. It is an important control, but some commercial entitlements are calculated across several invoices or become due after the original payment.
Consider the illustrative example on Duvo's payables audit offer: €48,000 of qualifying paid purchases with a 2% quarterly rebate creates a possible €960 credit. The invoices and POs match, but the supplier statement has no corresponding credit. AP still needs to confirm eligibility, timing and whether an adjustment was recorded elsewhere before approving a claim.
| Finding | What the audit must establish | What recovery requires |
|---|---|---|
| Possible duplicate payment | The same obligation was paid twice, rather than reversed, split or legitimately repeated | Supplier confirmation and a matched refund or credit |
| Contract-price difference | The applicable price, effective period and purchased quantity support the calculation | An approved correction or claim, followed through to reconciliation |
| Missing credit note | A credit is due and has not already been received or applied elsewhere | Supplier follow-up and a match to the correct invoice or account |
| Unclaimed rebate or discount | The conditions were met and the entitlement is due | Evidence of eligibility, an approved claim and confirmation of settlement |
An invoice-processing tool can be working correctly while these items remain unresolved. The useful extension is a recovery workflow linked to the commercial evidence. See the existing guides to AP automation and invoice matching for the processes that feed it.
Choosing a recovery provider
For a large retailer, an accounts payable recovery audit provider needs to work with records spread across buying teams, legal entities and finance systems. Test how the provider joins supplier references, checks rebates across a purchase period and identifies credits already recorded in another system. Agree which team owns the supplier conversation and which entity should receive the credit.
Duvo can run approved supplier follow-up across the systems included in the agreed process. Start with representative paid invoices and agreements to establish the checks and handoffs. The initial file-based audit does not require replacing your ERP; production execution needs the access and approval rules for the systems it will use.
Evaluate the process on your own representative records, including an ambiguous finding and a claim that cannot be closed immediately. A demonstration of duplicate detection alone leaves most of the recovery decision unanswered.
| Buying question | What to ask the provider to demonstrate |
|---|---|
| What does the audit cover? | Entities, periods, ledgers and supported checks, with incomplete evidence listed |
| How are findings validated? | The agreement, calculation, reversals and related credits behind an exception |
| Who owns supplier follow-up? | Claim preparation, approved submission, replies, reminders and escalation |
| Where does a person decide? | Required approvals, contract questions and partial settlements, with context preserved |
| What counts as recovered? | The credit or refund matched to the approved claim and the finance record |
| Can the team run the process? | Operator decisions and an executive view that separates findings from outcomes |
| Does the process improve? | A recurring exception that becomes an approved change, with its subsequent result measured |
Also compare the commercial scope. A historical review, ongoing prevention and supplier recovery execution are different services. Establish who performs each, the fee basis, customer effort and the completion criteria.
With Duvo, you agree a fixed fee for the work upfront, with no token or seat charges. We back the agreed scope with a 5× ROI guarantee: if the measured value is less than five times the contract price, the contract is free. See pricing and guarantee terms.
For carrier invoices, the evidence and dispute channels differ. Use the freight audit guide when evaluating that process. Customer deductions taken from your receivables are another distinct problem, covered in the trade-deduction recovery guide.
How agentic recovery works
In an agentic recovery process, AI helps interpret the records and execute the permitted next step. The process defines the evidence required, the decision owner, the supplier contact route and what must be verified before closure.
Duvo gathers the relevant records and prepares the calculation with its supporting agreement. AP can inspect the finding, reject a false positive, request more evidence or approve the supplier follow-up. Procurement may need to resolve an interpretation of the terms before a claim proceeds.
After approval, Duvo sends the claim through the agreed channel and tracks the response. If the supplier asks for a missing invoice, the process gathers it. If the supplier disputes eligibility or proposes a partial settlement, the responsible person receives that decision with its context. Routine follow-up continues within the approved rules.
The final step checks the outcome. A supplier's agreement to issue a credit is an intermediate state. Duvo reconciles the credit received against the approved claim and updates the permitted AP or ERP records. A missing or short credit remains visible for follow-up. Where the agreed settlement is a refund, closure needs the corresponding payment evidence.
This is the operational advantage of an agentic solution: the approved claim can progress across records, email, portals and finance systems without requiring AP to coordinate each routine handoff manually. The team keeps control of the commercial and financial decisions.
Where people decide
Supplier recovery is part of an ongoing commercial relationship. A repeated invoice may be legitimate. A rebate may depend on exclusions that are not visible in the invoice data. A credit may be scheduled for the next statement. Acting before those points are resolved can create unnecessary disputes.
Duvo treats the human steps as part of the process. The AP reviewer validates the finding, procurement resolves the relevant contract question, and the finance owner approves actions within their authority. Each handoff carries the source records and the specific question that needs answering.
That process also needs a route for delay. If an approval is blocking recovery, the responsible person and reason should be visible. Adding more invoice checks will otherwise create a larger backlog at the same decision point. Process discovery establishes the actual responsibilities and exception paths before automation runs the approved workflow.
Operator and executive views
Duvo's operator and executive dashboards are part of Operating Insights, connected to the underlying process records. The views can be refined around the agreed recovery process and the viewer's permissions.
For AP operators, the view brings attention to findings awaiting review, missing documents, supplier replies and the next action. The operator can inspect the evidence behind the status and make the decision needed to keep the claim moving.
For executives, the view connects process performance with its verified result. Keep potential findings, approved claims and reconciled credits distinct. Review where intervention and failures occur, what remains unresolved and how the completed process performs against the baseline. Opening the records behind a number helps distinguish a supplier delay from an internal approval bottleneck.
A recovery report should make these states explicit:
- Potential finding: a difference that still needs validation.
- Approved claim: an amount the team has authorized for recovery.
- Supplier acceptance: an agreement that may still be awaiting settlement.
- Received and reconciled: the supported credit or refund has been matched to the claim and recorded.
The same amount must not be counted again each time it moves to the next state. Nor should corrected future invoices be mixed with recovery of payments already made.
How the Duvo Loop learns
The Duvo Loop connects Capture, Diagnose, Decide, Act, Verify and Learn. In payables recovery, the loop starts by understanding the records and handoffs, diagnoses discrepancies and delays, routes the necessary decisions, executes the approved follow-up, and verifies the settlement. Learning then uses those outcomes to improve the next version of the process.
Suppose a supplier repeatedly rejects claims because one category of purchase is excluded from the rebate agreement. The resolved claims provide evidence for a better eligibility check. The process owner can approve that correction before it is used in later audits. The result should be fewer avoidable claims and less review effort; measure that change against the prior process.
A different pattern may point to the handoff rather than the calculation. If the same supporting document is requested on every claim, collect it earlier. If approvals repeatedly wait with the wrong team, change the responsibility with the owner's agreement. The system can identify and propose those improvements from its execution history. People approve the changes that govern future actions.
Duvo's Notino bonus-reconciliation deployment shows why the complete process matters. The cycle fell from 70 days to 15, and specialist work from about 120 hours to under 10 per cycle. The deployment connects data collection, consolidation, verification of written records and escalation of delayed approvals. These are measured reconciliation improvements, not a claim that the same amount or percentage will be recovered in a payables audit.
Start with paid invoices
The free payables audit starts with an agreed paid-invoice extract, supporting records and an AP reviewer. The initial audit uses files without live ERP access. Its report identifies the finding, evidence, validation status and next decision; the sample Excel report shows the format.
Use the reviewed findings to agree the continuing process: which claims Duvo will pursue, who approves exceptions, how supplier contact is handled, what the dashboards measure and what evidence closes a recovery. Supplier contact and production updates are a separately approved scope. The supplier reconciliation and working-capital recovery pages describe related processes that can connect to that scope.
Frequently asked questions
What is an accounts payable recovery audit?
An accounts payable recovery audit checks paid invoices, payment records, agreements and credits for overpayments or missed entitlements. It validates potential claims and follows approved recovery through to received credits or refunds and reconciliation.
How does recovery audit differ from AP automation?
AP automation handles processes such as invoice intake, matching, approval and payment. Recovery audit examines whether payments and supplier credits reflect the commercial agreement, including errors or missed entitlements that survive routine invoice matching.
Can an audit find credits after payment?
Yes. A recovery audit can identify missed rebates, unapplied credits and duplicate payments after invoices have been paid. It checks the supporting agreements and payment history, validates whether an amount is still owed, and follows approved claims through supplier settlement and reconciliation.
Can Duvo handle supplier follow-up?
Yes. Within the agreed scope and approval rules, Duvo prepares and sends supplier claims, tracks replies, follows up, reconciles received credits and updates permitted AP or ERP records. Your team handles the decisions that require its approval.
What data do we need to start?
Start with a paid-invoice extract, payment history and supporting records for the agreed checks. These may include purchase orders, goods receipts, supplier agreements, statements and credit notes. The first audit uses files without live ERP access and needs an AP reviewer to explain the records and validate findings.
How much does Duvo cost?
Duvo agrees a fixed fee for the work upfront, with no token or seat charges. The agreed scope carries a 5× ROI guarantee: if the measured value is less than five times the contract price, the contract is free. See Duvo's pricing and guarantee terms.
Can an audit work across multiple ERPs?
Yes, when the agreed audit includes the relevant records from each system. Supplier references, invoices, payments and credits must be matched across those records, with legal entities kept distinct. Duvo checks whether an apparent overpayment or missing credit was already reversed, settled or recorded elsewhere before preparing a claim.
When does a claim count as recovered?
A claim counts as recovered when the credit or refund has been received, matched to the approved claim and reconciled in the finance records. Supplier acceptance alone is not recovery. If only part of the amount arrives, record that part as recovered and keep the outstanding balance open.