
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an “Accounts Payable Review”?
What are the benefits to me as a client?
How will it affect my current workload?
Why would I want to do this?
We already have a very tight process.
How much does it cost?
Will this take a lot of my staff’s time?
What are the benefits to my Company?
What is the potential for dollar recovery?
What time frame do you review?
Should I be worried about what you find?
What if I do nothing?
1. What is an “Accounts Payable Review”?
This is a thorough review of your disbursement documents by our team to recover
money that has gone out as overpayments. The process includes
all AP dollars (excluding payroll or expense account), contract
compliance and sales and use tax.
APRI uses a combination of electronic data gathering and on-site review to perform
a very thorough review of your disbursement documents.
2. What are the benefits to me as a client?
There are only two possible outcomes of an A/P review, both benefit your company
greatly:
- The review is completed and
no significant recoveries are made. Client now has outside
verification that AP procedures are working well.
- Moderate to significant recoveries
are made. Client recovers CASH that already went out as
overpayments, and has taken a proactive step to validate
and improve AP procedures, preventing future occurrences.
APRI will do all the work from discovery to recovery.
3. How will it affect my current workload?
APRI will be looking at the previous 3 years AP files. We gather the data up
front for analysis. We start the on-site part of the review
with a 45 minute opening meeting and generally do not require
more that 1 hour per week of client staff time. This may
include AP, purchasing and/or manufacturing staff. Most of
our internal (client) and vendor contact will be handled via
email. When on-site we pull and return our own files and require
very little client involvement in our AP review process.
4. Why would I want to do this?
This is a chance to validate accounts payable processes and recover your
company’s money that has already gone out without any
downside risk.
Our findings are most often within the acceptable range (GAAP .05% to .2% of
AP), but can add up to substantial dollars back to your company
depending on the magnitude of your accounts payable. In addition,
this process will help uncover and prevent future errors.
Any recovery is a positive contribution to your cash flow and gives AP a chance
to bring dollars back in house.
5. We already have a very tight process.
Most clients believe they have a tight AP system and they do. Many AP managers
are concerned that our findings will reflect on them. The
reality is that AP reviews result in findings of accounts
payable overpayment errors in a very narrow range (.05% to
.2%) of total AP dollars. Most occurrences also are at a
specific point in time i.e. 3 months and they have already
been corrected.
6. How much does it cost? This is a contingency-based process, therefore NO RECOVERY = NO COST to our
client. APRI is paid only when you have access to the recovered
money. This is a self-funded process with minimal client
cost or involvement.
This is money that will be lost after 3 years if not recovered.
7. Will this take a lot of my staff’s time?
APRI will gather AP data files up front. When we come on site we have a short
opening meeting to let people know we are going to be there,
and handle routine office items, work hours, file locations
etc.. Once on-site work begins, we will need not more that
one hour a week of client staff time.
This is a project for APRI not our client.
8. What are the benefits to my Company?
- Dollars recovered will improve
client’s profitability.
- Provides system / process validation.
- Will be a positive contribution
to client cash flow.
- Gives AP a chance to bring
cash back in house.
9. What is the potential for dollar recovery?
Although we never know for sure, we do look at indicators such as rapid growth,
ERP system change, divisions or company expansion thru acquisition
and changes in purchasing and/or AP personnel as reasons for
possible errors to occur. Industry averages will put the range
at about .05% to .2% of 3 year gross AP dollars reviewed.
10. What time frame do you review?
Generally APRI reviews the 3 previous years closed books, but we can tailor
the time frame to meet client specific needs.
11. Should I be worried about what you find?
NO. Our findings will range in 30 plus areas such as pricing errors (purchasing)
and sales tax errors (mfg / purchasing), and are generally
comprised of numerous immaterial errors that occur when processing
huge volumes of transactions.
Most errors found are single occurrences, such as duplicate payments, or happen
for a short period of time (sales/use tax) and have since
been corrected. APRI will go back and recover the overpayment.
APRI simply adds value to your AP staff effectiveness.
12. What if I do nothing?
The risk of doing nothing means that money that has gone out as overpayments
(and some has!) will be lost after 3 years. You also lose
a chance to test and validate AP and contract compliance processes.
Remember, this is all done on a contingency basis and APRI does all the work.
|