S2M’s vast experience has shown every large organisation makes duplicated or overpayments. Sometimes these are discovered internally, sometimes these are highlighted by suppliers, but usually they remain undiscovered and eventually become “lost profits”. Through the application of leading edge data mining technology coupled with highly skilled staff, S2M can help recover these hidden losses.

We normally examine the last five to six years transactions to identify potential duplicate payments. Acting as a ‘ghost service provider’ we contact suppliers and recover any duplicate payments straight to your bottom line.

We use multiple different algorithms and logarithms to compile tailored reports which help us analyse the clients data. The output from this provides our analysts with a long list of reports where potential duplications have been highlighted. This will then be reduced to a more comprehensive list by the analyst using their accounting knowledge and previous experience.

As an example the reports will look for potential duplicates due to individual fields match exactly, multiple fields match exactly, special characters in invoice numbers as a substitute for a number, transposed numbers, transaction dates differ for same invoice numbers, extra characters inserted to an invoice number, characters missing from an invoice number, amongst many other key searches.

We use a simple 5 step process to enable us to get the best results.

  1. Data Acquisition – A simple download of the relevant years transactions is presented to S2M in any format
  2. Analysis and Identification – Our data mining software runs a series of test reports and algorithms to identify potential duplicate or overpayments to suppliers
  3. Validation of Potential Claims – S2M analysts will check the validity of each claim by means of “read-only” access to your accounts payable system. We would then present a results listing for your review and approval. This is not for you to check our work but to ensure we speak to only those suppliers you wish us to. This enables you to have complete control of the project as we want to work with our clients and not against our clients.
  4. Recovery of Duplicates or Overpayments – Following your approval our trained analysts will communicate with each relevant supplier to pursue the recoveries until a recovery is made. Ie. Credit note, Bacs, or other means of refund. Progress is continually monitored and we will provide regular updates and reports of the recoveries in process.
  5. Final Report and Recommendations – To conclude our assignment we will produce a report highlighting any identified “significant” failings in systems or controls, together with our recommendations for improvement where relevant.

All communication and correspondence is carried out using your letter headed paper and pre-approved worded letters signed by your managers, or through access to your own internal email address. This is a contingency based service and therefore any invoicing will only occur once a recovery has been benefitted from.

Case Study:

Major European Construction Group

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