Audit Recovery
Moody Associates, P. A. (M&A) identifies and recovers inadvertent overpayments to, and under-deductions from, suppliers that would otherwise remain undetected and lost. As a CPA firm, we have a solid understanding of the internal control environment. This enables us to audit your disbursement process quickly and efficiently and to provide value added reports to augment your continuous improvement process. Additional audit recovery services include: Contract Compliance Auditing, Debit Balance Management, and Credit Balance Clean-Up.
Data Acquisition
M&A’s IT Department has years of experience working with Fortune 500 Client IT Departments to obtain the data needed to conduct a thorough audit. We have received and processed data from all common sources, including SAP, Oracle, J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft, Lawson, and other proprietary Legacy and homegrown systems.
We work hand in hand with our Client’s IT departments by providing them functional specifications, to include relevant field names and conversion logic, based upon their system, which greatly minimizes the amount of time they spend on the project.
Our Client’s data is processed at our secure data center where we deal with large volumes of data in a variety of formats. M&A’s IT group are experts in normalizing and manipulating complex files. Based upon these data sets, M&A creates Client-specific reports such as duplicate payment reports, missed discounts, disbursement analysis, vendor scrub reports, EDI candidate reports, and sales tax analysis, among others.
The state-of-the-art sofware we utilize can analyze virtually any kind of data including but not limited to:
We can accept data from its original format without requiring special programming. If the data resides in a mainframe, our software works best if it has not been translated to ASCII. If the data is from a system that uses ASCII by default (i.e. Windows or most Unix systems) then no conversion is required. Our software is compatible with all major mainframe and minicomputer data types and it will read EBCDIC directly.
The preferred file type is a flat, sequential, tab delimited file. Although this single record type, fixed length file is preferable for processing, it is not essential. We can process multiple-record-type files and almost any type of variable length file. With respect to data storage, you can use a compressed file on disk/CD if size permits or tape. If you wish, you can transmit the files via FTP.
Analysis and Identification
With complete and accurate data our auditors will examine 100% of the data files provided using our software system to identify opportunities and trends. For the largest vendors representing a minimum of 90% dollar coverage, we closely analyze a representative sample of transactions in the vendor file. This detailed examination facilitates the identification of anomalies that would not be detected solely through analysis of the data files.
We will test all of the fields in the data files. We audit our Client’s systems and processes to include, but not be limited to, identifying overpayments and/or duplicate payments made by the Client when paying suppliers’ invoices for inventory, supplies, services, capital projects, and other expenses. We identify pricing errors, unprocessed vendor credits, missed discounts, and overlapping bills among other payment errors.
Recovery
The majority of our work will be performed offsite. We may spend two to three days at the onset of the engagement to accomplish certain administrative tasks and obtain an understanding of the environment in which we are operating. Based on our preliminary procedures we will develop a formal work plan, refine our staffing requirements and specifically tailor our work program to conform to our respective Clients operating environment. While on-site, our audit team will require access to our Clients accounting system (on a read only basis), access to the file room if invoices are paper, or access to the imaging system if they are imaged.
The recovery stage begins with the communication of our findings to you. With your approval, we then contact your vendors and begin the recovery process. We will confirm 100% of our claims with your vendors, we will prepare a complete documentation package for each audit finding to facilitate a smooth, uncontested process and prompt recovery from your vendors. Recovery may take several forms, including cash refunds, reductions of future liabilities, or vendor credits.
Each claim contains an error code that at completion of the project we are able to provide you with a "root cause" analysis.
As your liaison, we will ensure that communication with your vendors is conducted on a professional level and in a manner that will not jeopardize your strategic vendor relationships.
Reports and Recommendations
M&A considers management reporting to be a key element in the delivery of our services and we will tailor our reporting to meet your needs. Our engagements are designed not only to recover lost profits for our Clients, but also to provide additional value through our practical recommendations to reduce future lost profits. We provide detailed, root cause analysis on overpayments, both individually and in aggregate. Although communicated throughout the engagement, our recommendations will be included in a final report at the conclusion of audit fieldwork. These recommendations are practical to implement and have earned us praise from our Clients.
We are constantly working with our Client base to provide new and insightful reports that allow them to make sound business decisions. Our auditors possess an in-depth understanding of IT and financial analysis and have worked with management at all levels.
Associated information:
Contract Compliance Audits
Unclaimed Property Consulting
Consulting Services
Health Care Claims Audit Services
Pharmacy Benefit Management Audit
