Recovery Auditors
Pros and Cons of Using Recovery Auditors
FISCAL Technologies partners with a number of external recovery auditors and believe they do offer a good range of services such as pricing analysis, contract reviews, property audits and utility bill assessment. However they should not be used for catching duplicate payments and errors. This is best done by an in-house AP team.
FISCAL recommends that every AP team should be proactive about preventing duplicate payments and use a combination of specialist in-house accounts payable audit software such as AP Forensics® daily/weekly and an external auditor every 2-3 years to ensure maximum protection. Over the last 7 years we have found that recovery auditors do:
1. Cost – charging 20-50% commission on the amounts they recover for you. This cost can be significant and equal to several full time equivalents. By using AP Forensics® you pay just a fraction of what a recovery auditor would charge.
2. Use Technology – This is where their value lies and they will not let you use it directly. They are highly protective of their technology which has helped create a billion pound industry. When you buy AP Forensics® you get world-class software that has been proven over seven years, directly on your desktop.
3. Offer Recovery Not Prevention – Ultimately they are always looking at historic transactions. In most cases only part of the payments are recovered. This means your organisation is losing money. Running prevention software ensures that 100% of the potential duplicates are stopped.
4. Don’t Offer Process Improvement – Most recovery auditors will not detail key recommendations for improvement. AP Forensics® makes this information available so that you can increase control and improve your processes to reduce duplicate payments and errors further.
5. Take The Data Off-Site – Usually when you hire a recovery auditor, you have to give them your payment history data, which usually involves it leaving your organisation. With AP Forensic® your data never leaves your site and always remains within your control.
6. Can Cause Problems With Supplier Relations – It’s usual for recovery auditors to contact your suppliers directly. Since recovery auditors are paid by results, they can sometimes be assertive with suppliers without any real consideration of their importance, and create future relationship problems. Running a prevention system limits supplier issues.
7. Don’t Understand Your Staff – Carrying out a recovery audit is an intrusive measure and means your staff have to give up their time in briefing the audit firm and assembling accounts payable files and data. Running AP Forensics® takes just one hour each week.
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