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Case study · Construction & professional services

Recovery audit partner selected across 36 jurisdictions

A six-vendor RFP for a seven-year AP recovery audit across around 60 business units and 36 jurisdictions, with contract risks surfaced before signature.

150kinvoices a year in scope
Client
Global construction and consultancy group
Sector
Construction & professional services
Service
Technology & Partner Selection

The challenge

The group wanted an independent recovery audit of its accounts payable: duplicate payments, missed credits and supplier overcharges. The scope was large and complex, covering around 60 business units, 36 jurisdictions, 150,000 invoices a year and 16,300 active vendor accounts. It needed a specialist partner, chosen through a fair and transparent process.

  • ~60business units in scope
  • 36jurisdictions
  • 150kinvoices a year
  • 7 yrsof historical AP data

Our approach

  • Defined the scope, requirements and evaluation criteria with Finance, Procurement, Tax and Legal.
  • Ran a six-vendor RFP covering seven years of historical data: written responses, presentations, reference calls and weighted scoring.
  • Reviewed the draft contract before signature and raised the issues needing specialist input: an auto-renewing term for what was meant to be a one-off engagement, asymmetric termination and fee terms, exclusivity, the liability cap, and the absence of meaningful data-processing terms for seven years of AP data.
  • Led the commercial negotiation with the preferred partner.
  • Handed over to the operations team to work with the appointed auditors on recovery, with clear governance and responsibilities.
A selection built to stand up to scrutiny
  1. 01DefineScope, criteria, weighting
  2. 02RFPSix vendors, written responses
  3. 03EvaluatePresentations, references, scoring
  4. 04Contract reviewTerm, fees, liability, data protection
  5. 05NegotiateCommercial terms
  6. 06Hand overOperations work with the auditors
  • People decision
  • System / automated
  • Control point

Contract risks were raised before signature, not discovered after.

The outcome

  • A specialist recovery audit partner appointed through a transparent, auditable selection
  • Contractual, operational and data-protection risks identified and addressed before signature, so value recovery didn’t create disproportionate risk
  • A clean handover, so operations could run the recovery programme with the auditors

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  1. DefineAgree requirements, scope, evaluation criteria and weighting with all stakeholders.
  2. EngageRun the RFP: market engagement, evaluation materials, clarification responses and demonstrations.
  3. Evaluate & negotiateScore solutions comparably, check references, review the draft contract for term, termination, fees, liability and data-protection risk, and lead the commercial negotiation.
  4. Hand overTransition to the operations team with contract, governance, KPIs and a mobilisation plan.

Keep reading

More results, measured.

40%+straight-through processing reached on the selected platform

From AP discovery to an automation platform, without a preferred product

Structured discovery of the invoice-to-pay process led to a seven-part improvement agenda, an options analysis and a weighted RFP that selected a specialist AP automation platform.

Global construction and consultancy group · Technology & Partner Selection100%of the division's payments approved and released in the ERP

Supplier payments brought end-to-end into the ERP

A once-weekly payment cycle run through spreadsheets, email chains and bank-portal approvals was redesigned around in-ERP workflow, automated reporting and direct bank transmission.

Global construction and consultancy group · Finance Process Automation£6Mrecovered to the P&L

£6M recovered from a goods-received-not-invoiced balance

In-depth analysis of a goods-received-not-invoiced balance traced it to process and system root causes. Fixing them returned around £6M to the P&L.

Global construction and consultancy group · Process Mapping & Lean Re-engineering

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