Tops’ CFO Rick Mills reports, “Since moving our recovery process in-house to existing staff with near real-time technology, we are on track to reduce our recovery expense by almost half.  These changes will accelerate our recovery by at least one year.  The faster turn-around time for our cash is extraordinary.”

Tops credits Audit Technology Group (ATG) technology and teamwork as the secret to its recovery audit success. Tops has incorporated RecoverNow™, the near real-time audit process powered by ATG’s web application audit tools, and ATG-Advantage™, the in-house solution enabling internal staff to conduct recovery audits using the ATG web audit tools and data preparation services.  Tops Markets is Audit Technology Group’s first fully installed ATG-Advantage™ client implementing monthly recovery audits.

Tops’ vendors have been pleased with the changes. Vendors dislike traditional post-annual audits because past years’ recoveries impact their current year financials. The response from Tops’ vendor community has been positive because recoveries are usually identified, reconciled and closed in less than three months.

Mills said that Tops’ merchandise staff is also happier with the near real-time recoveries. Mills states, “In the spirit of vendor partnership, near real-time recovery is much better.  The situation is fresher in our minds and the turn-around time is faster for our cash.  Ultimately, this change improves our buyers’ margins and funding.”

Mills said with certainty, “Our external auditors, as well as our partners in the vendor community, are favorably impressed with the improved cost recovery practices RecoverNow™ and ATG-Advantage™ is providing Tops.  Dealing with promotional
contracts from one or two years ago is a thing of the past”.

Audit Technology Group’s ATG EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Paul Dinkins said, “Tops’ ATG-Advantage™ implementation has been a case study in success.  It has been a win-win for Tops Friendly Markets and its key stakeholders.”

About Tops Friendly Markets

Tops Friendly Markets, LLC (www.topsmarkets.com) is headquartered in Williamsville, NY.  It operates 126 full-service supermarkets and five franchise supermarkets. With more than 13,000 associates, Tops is a leading full-service grocery retailer in upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania.

About RecoverNow™ and near neal-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 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.