Case study · Finance and back office
Every supplier payment run is now checked before it goes out. Duplicates are caught while the money is still there.
A second pair of eyes on every payment run, with the evidence for each flag, so a duplicate or a changed bank detail is found before the money leaves.
- Who
- A company with an in-house finance manager and a few hundred suppliers, paid in batches.
- The problem
- A duplicate payment or a changed supplier bank detail would only be found after the money had gone.
- What we did
- Each month, before the finance manager approves a run, we send a list of exceptions with the evidence for each, and prove the checks still work.
- The result
- Exceptions reach the approver before payment. Every month a test shows the checks still catch the cases that matter.
- Time
- Ongoing. A monthly service, started within days of the first message.
What was going on.
The finance manager paid suppliers in batches. Before each batch, someone looked it over by eye. That is a fair check on a quiet month and a weak one on a busy month. A duplicate invoice, a supplier whose bank details had quietly changed, or a payee paid for the first time would each be found only afterwards, if at all.
A one-off review would not help much. Supplier details change, duplicate patterns shift, and the run that goes wrong is always the one nobody checked.
What we found.
The need was not a better one-off review but the same check in front of the approver before every run, with some proof that the check itself keeps working.
So each month we receive the payment batch through an agreed secure route, produce a list of probable duplicates, changed bank-detail codes, first-time payees and unusual amounts, and put the evidence for each next to it. We never see bank account numbers, and we never instruct or release a payment.
The technical detail
The checks compare each batch against the supplier master and the previous payment history. Changed bank details are detected by comparing a code derived from the details, not the details themselves. Each month a test pack with planted problems, kept from us by the approver, is run to show the checks still find them without flagging clean items.
What we did.
How we checked it.
These had to pass before we asked for sign-off.
- Each month the approver's test pack, with planted duplicates, changed bank details, first-time payees and unusual amounts, is run and every planted case is found.
- False flags on a clean pack stay at or under the number agreed in advance.
- Every case that passed last month still passes. A case that fails is reported with its cause.
- The original files are unchanged, and nothing was written to any live system by us.
What they have now.
Before each run the finance manager now has a short list with evidence instead of a feeling. In the first month most of the flagged items were harmless first-time payees. One was a probable duplicate, which was held back from the run and looked at before any money moved.
The finance manager reads each month's list and tells us whether the thresholds still suit. A month counts as delivered when the result and the test report have arrived.
What we did not do.
- We never see bank account numbers, and we do not instruct, approve or release any payment. A named person at the company decides every item.
- We do not give accounting, tax or audit advice, and we do not say the company's figures are correct or complete.
- The service covers up to four payment runs a month. More is a different agreement.
The service behind this.
A check that runs before every payment, and proves each month that it still works, protects you better than a careful review once.
Monthly service
Monthly payment-run check
Each month, before you approve up to four payment runs, we send an exceptions list of probable duplicates, changed bank-detail codes, first-time payees and unusual amounts, each with evidence.
$195/month. Billing is monthly under the written terms we agree with you. Nothing is charged until you have agreed them.
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