The Domino Effect: How Small Supplier Errors Multiply Across Projects

Michael Intravartolo
Oct 23
2 min read

Every significant loss of money starts out little. A small mistake by a supplier can set off a chain reaction that affects budgets, departments, and projects. No one notices a rounding error here, a missing discount there, or anything else.

If you don’t verify supplier invoices automatically, tiny price disparities don’t just add up — they get bigger.

Things to Keep in Mind

Find out how a small error by a supplier can hurt your entire organization.
Learn why regular invoice checks don’t always identify systematic cost leakage.
See how automation prevents small problems from turning into big losses.
Quickly uncover your exposure using our Pricing Calculator.

The First Domino: A Little Mistake

It usually begins harmlessly — a supplier changes the price file, adds a fee, or adjusts the amount of a discount. The change doesn’t go into your system right away. Accounts Payable processes the invoice. The payment goes out.

No notifications. No signs of danger.

But that one extra fee quietly becomes the norm. If no one catches it, it becomes standard. And that erroneous assumption becomes the basis for every new bill.

When “Small” Becomes a Part of the System

Here’s what happens next:

When the prices on each purchase order are slightly inflated, projects start costing more than they should.
Teams rush to explain overruns that weren’t really their fault.
Forecasting models break down, leading to inaccurate financial decisions.

By the end of a fiscal year, a few small supplier mistakes can cost businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost profits.

In industries that rely on many suppliers and constantly changing prices, manual oversight simply can’t keep up.

The Price of Each Mistake for People

It takes hours to fix every supplier error. Finance teams dig through PDFs and spreadsheets to find out what went wrong — often discovering the issue started months ago.

The mistake itself isn’t the main concern. It’s how long it stays hidden that causes real damage.

Without automated validation, the cycle keeps repeating — project after project, invoice after invoice — until someone finally asks:

“We lost a lot of money without even knowing it. How?”

Stopping the Chain Reaction

3rd Armor helps companies break that pattern by verifying supplier invoices for issues before they’re paid.

Our system detects inconsistencies in pricing, surcharges, and contract clauses — protecting your projects and revenue from the silent chaos of compounding errors.

When automation takes over, the dominos stop falling.