BY BLENDING NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND DECADES OF BEST PRACTICES, AUDITS ARE NOW CAPABLE OF STOPPING LEAKAGE AT SOURCE

There’s greater emphasis on collaboration and sharing insights with suppliers to drive process improvement, and reduce post-audit claims.

Despite the progress made, transactional errors persist, suppliers push back on claims, and as a result the back-end cost of claims management keep rising.

The UK retail industry is evolving at speed, adding new channels and expanding the scope of supplier relationships. Retailers are getting creative: experimenting with digital and mobile coupons, trying new loyalty promotions, adding volume discounts, and looking for novel ways to mix and match these.

While these changes are critical to meeting the dual challenges of changing consumer behaviour and intensifying demand, they come at a cost, adding layers of complexity to an already strained process.

Challenges around data, systems and tracking make it hard for finance teams to keep up with the pace of change, increasing the risk that retailers might miss key funding opportunities or potential deductions, risking millions of pounds of profit.

To avoid those pitfalls and minimise profit leakage, retailers can re-position core recovery audit capabilities further upstream in the source-to-pay process. By conducting a preventive audit, they can focus on getting it right the first time and driving best practices. Not only does this address the growing desire for real-time insight, but it maximises agreed funding due, improves margin accuracy and visibility, and quality of reporting. Taking a preventive approach drives a more informed, data-led decision process.

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This article was also published in The Retailer, our quarterly online magazine providing thought-leading insights from BRC experts and Associate Members.

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