We Were Reimbursing Duplicate Receipts Because Accounting Had No Memory 🔥

Finance team drowning in receipt emails. 450 monthly. Manual processing creating problems. Same receipt submitted multiple times. Different clerks processing independently. Duplicate reimbursements happening regularly.

Built n8n expense automation with duplicate detection.

THE BREAKING POINT:

Accounting processing receipts via email. Download PDF. Read merchant and amount manually. Type into spreadsheet. Check if compliant with policy. Determine approval tier. Send to appropriate manager. Wait for approval. Process reimbursement. 15 minutes per receipt.

No system checking for duplicates. Employee submits Uber receipt Monday. Clerk processes. Same employee forwards same receipt Friday. Different clerk processes again. Duplicate payment issued.

37 duplicate reimbursements first year. $4,200 paid twice for same expenses. Discovering duplicates weeks later during reconciliation. Awkward conversations requesting refunds from employees.

Policy enforcement inconsistent. $75 meal approved by one clerk. Identical amount flagged as violation by another. Employees confused about actual limits. Compliance suffering.

THE n8n WORKFLOW:

13-node automation handling complete expense lifecycle.

Gmail monitoring catches receipt emails automatically. Downloads PDF attachments. Extracts structured data - merchant, date, line items, subtotal, tax, total amount. No manual typing required.

Duplicate detection fingerprints each receipt. Merchant name combined with date and total creates unique identifier. System checks against every previous submission. Match found, flags as duplicate, prevents reimbursement.

Policy validation applies company expense limits automatically. Meals: $50 maximum. Lodging: $200 maximum. Transportation: $100 maximum. Office supplies: $500 maximum. Other expenses: $100 maximum.

Category assignment uses merchant intelligence. Restaurant names trigger meal category. Hotel names trigger lodging category. Uber, Lyft, taxi trigger transportation. Office Depot triggers office supplies. Automatic categorization every time.

Approval routing based on amount thresholds. Under $100: auto-approved, Slack notification sent, immediate processing. $100-$500: Tier 1 manager approval requested. $500-$1,000: Tier 2 senior manager approval. Over $1,000: Executive approval required. Right person notified automatically.

Google Sheets logging creates searchable expense database. Every receipt tracked with complete details. Merchant, date, amount, category, policy status, approval tier, duplicate flag all recorded.

Accounting email summarizes each processed expense. Line item details included. Policy compliance noted. Approval status visible. Complete audit trail maintained.

DEPLOYMENT METRICS:

12 months. 5,400 receipts processed.

Processing: 112 hours monthly automated

Duplicate prevention: 37 caught ($4,200 saved)

Policy compliance: inconsistent → 100% systematic

Approval delays: eliminated completely

Accounting accuracy: manual errors gone

Employees experience faster reimbursements. Finance maintains proper expense controls. Compliance becomes systematic.

Templates: n8n

How many duplicate expense reimbursements slip through your current process?

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