Consumer behavior is in a period of constant change with demand patterns shifting and trends greatly accelerating in a matter of weeks, if not days. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) businesses are under increasing pressure to protect margin, grow market share, and innovate to meet the needs of traditional and omnichannel retailers in this rapidly changing environment. At the same time, they must demonstrate renewed agility in the procure-to-pay lifecycle by building new and transformative relationships with suppliers across the globe.

As CPG companies grapple with increasingly complex supply chains, contract negotiations, a growing number of channels, operational challenges, and go-to-market strategies, payment integrity issues are inevitable. A holistic approach to managing supplier relationships and procurement initiatives must include a comprehensive recovery audit of expenses and contracts.

Identify the root cause of revenue leakage and recover lost profit

Experience is an express lane to recovering revenue leakage resulting from accounts payable and indirect spending agreements. Cotiviti relies on industry-leading audit IP, advanced technologies, and experienced auditors to review data across tens of thousands of invoices and contracts. Cotiviti shares insights from across all suppliers in our database to provide a 360-degree view of issues that can lead to lost profit and to identify emerging trends and developments that can transform your supplier relationships.

Our team of auditors, supported by best-in-class technologies, begins an engagement understanding the unique challenges CPG firms face in optimizing supplier relationships and realizing value across the procure-to-pay lifecycle. Root cause insights spanning an entire marketspace and varying types of agreements result in greater accuracy and performance.

Safeguard value by performing an accounts payable recovery audit

When dealing with a substantial volume of transactions and supplier contracts, vulnerabilities and errors are bound to erode a company’s bottom line. An Accounts Payable (AP) Recovery Audit is a safeguard to ensure that you are realizing value by reviewing supplier data to spot overpayments and under deductions. Cotiviti’s AP Recovery Audit uses a combination of advanced technology and highly experience auditors to identify leakage in key areas:

Expense Payables

Duplicate payments, overpayments, payments to incorrect vendors, and missed discounts are all possible when organizations process millions of transactions every year.

Cotiviti utilizes distinct audit methodologies and investments in proprietary technology, data mining, and analytics to uncover these errors that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Statements

A Cotiviti statement audit helps companies realize efficient cash flow. Often, funds are "missing" due to unprocessed credit memos, unapplied cash, misapplied credit memos, netting of open invoices, discrepancies in credit memo amounts versus chargeback amounts, and invoicing payment anomalies.

Our highly experienced team review supplier statements to identify variances that can produce corrections in your favor.

Identify patterns of overpayment and ensure suppliers deliver on their commitments

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies execute hundreds of indirect spend contracts for goods and services with complex terms and conditions that often go unchecked—and can represent millions of dollars in overpayments. Confirming compliance with contract terms is critical to ensure what was negotiated was received, but identifying errors is just the first step on the path to complete payment accuracy. Supplier cooperation is critical, but not always easy to obtain. A skilled audit partner with an extensive network of supplier relationships can best navigate the negotiation and settlement process to drive a fair and favorable outcome for all involved.

Goods not for resale (GNFR) or indirect spend categories that Cotiviti reviews across a variety of industries include:

Cotiviti’s experienced Contract Compliance audit team completes hundreds of audits per year for our CPG clients, deploying a mix of proprietary technology and highly experienced teams to review the terms, conditions, and intent of suppliers’ contracts and compare them with goods and services actually delivered. We identify anomalies to contract intent thorough analysis of key cost, pricing, and profit elements within each contract. The risk profile we have developed can help identify potential audit opportunities.