Chicago IL, December 19, 2011 – For decades, legacy recovery audits have cost retailers money and goodwill with their vendors.  Hy-Vee is implementing a way to improve their bottom line and their vendor relationships – near real-time auditing.

Hy-Vee’s Vice President of Purchasing and Marketing Mark McQuistan states, “Implementing a near real-time audit process is helping us eliminate the negative aspects of recovery audits by bringing the audit closer to the transaction.  Traditional post-annual audits were a disaster for vendor relations.”

“I see no negatives to near real-time auditing.  We are getting all the money we deserve and getting it faster.  The buyers and the vendors are happier,” said McQuistan.

Hy-Vee is implementing Audit Technology Group’s (ATG) RecoverNow™, the near real-time audit process powered by ATG’s web application audit tools, and ATG-Advantage™, the in-house solution that enables internal staff to conduct recovery audits using the ATG web audit tools and data preparation services.

Buyers are enjoying less recovery work overall.  Identifying errors more frequently and closer to the transaction means that buyers receive a smaller number of issues at one time.  Researching possible errors is easier because the transactions occurred recently. And, because the audit is happening in-house, buyers are discussing details and supporting data with their Hy-Vee peers, not an outside consultant.

McQuistan said, “In the past when we found a problem from one or two years back, the ‘recovered funds’ were often taken from this year’s promotional funding.  Because we are addressing issues within the same fiscal year, we are able to maximize the best possible deals for our customers.  That makes everyone happier.”

McQuistan had kudos for Audit Technology Group, too. “One benefit of the implementation I had not expected was ATG’s sensitivity to Hy-Vee’s culture and expectations.  Each grocer has nuances in the way they do business.  ATG adapted custom audit routines for Hy-Vee’s unique rules.”

McQuistan closed by saying, “I see Hy-Vee making more money because of this important change.”

About Hy-Vee

Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 233 retail stores in eight Midwestern states. For 2011 the company will record total sales of $7.2 billion, ranking it among the top 25 supermarket chains and the top 50 private companies in the United States. Visit the company’s website at www.hy-vee.com.

About RecoverNow™ and near real-time audits

RecoverNow™ reduces the human resources required to perform an audit, so it is a cost-effective solution that both digs deeper and can do so more frequently. RecoverNow™ replaces the annual audit process with daily, weekly or monthly reviews.

Near real-time audits can increase recoveries by as much as 30 percent because errors are detected and presented as adjustments to individual invoices close to the transaction.  Rather than old, larger aggregated claims, vendors are presented with timely individual invoice adjustments eliminating age-related rejection by vendors.  Research supports that for each one billion dollars of retail sales, grocers may expect to recover between $750,000 and $1,000,000.

About ATG-Advantage™

ATG-Advantage™ is Audit Technology Group’s service option for use by clients’ internal staff.   It provides ATG data preparation and hosting along with deployment of ATG’s eRecover™ and eResolve™ web audit tools.  ATG provides training and support to ensure the optimum performance of the client team.  ATG is available, if needed, to augment a client’s staff when additional resources are required.

Bringing the recovery audit process in-house achieves the lowest possible cost of recovery.  ATG-Advantage™ offers virtually no risk for implementers, because existing recovery audit service providers can remain in place as a safety net until their recovery results become negligible.

About Audit Technology Group LLC

Since 2004, the Audit Technology Group has provided recovery audit services to retailers and grocers across the United States.  ATG’s objective is to transform recovery auditing from a legacy post-annual process to a near real-time solution that improves the overall experience for all stakeholders.  ATG is headquartered in Chicago IL.  For more information, visit www.atgaudits.com or call (224) 206-5807.

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Paul Dinkins, pdinkins@atgaudits.com, (224) 206-5807.