Paying invoices individually as they are approved feels responsive and is harder to control, because each payment is its own small process with no check on the whole. Batching approved invoices into a scheduled run creates a natural place for two checks that individual payments do not get, and it makes payment dates predictable for suppliers.
The run itself
Approved invoices due within a window, grouped by supplier, producing one transfer per supplier and one file for the bank. Weekly suits most organisations. The grouping is what lets you send a single remittance advice covering several invoices, which is the difference between a supplier who can allocate the payment and one who telephones.
Check one: the run as a whole
Does the total agree with the approved invoices in it, is anything in it already paid, and is the run the expected shape and size for this week. These are checks on the batch rather than on individual invoices, and they catch what per-invoice checking cannot, including a run that has quietly doubled because something was included twice.
Check two: release by a second person
Whoever prepared the run should not be the only person who can release it. Simple, old, and effective. The moment it usually lapses is absence, so decide the cover arrangement in advance and make sure it does not put supplier maintenance and payment release in the same hands.
Questions people ask about how to pay invoices
How often should runs happen?
Weekly for most organisations. Fortnightly adds a wait suppliers notice; daily mostly adds administration.
What about urgent payments?
Make them an explicit exception with a reason, because ad hoc payments are where controls most often lapse.
Do we need to send remittances?
They remove most supplier chasing at no cost, particularly where one transfer covers several invoices.