- Home >>
- Author's archive:
Chuck Andrade, Industry Veteran Joins ATG To Lead Shared Services Center
[xf_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” align=” space=” margin=’0px’ padding=’30px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′] [xf_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′]Chuck Andrade, Industry Veteran Joins ATG To Lead Shared Services Center
People behind the technology make the statement audit process work and nobody knows statement auditing like Chuck Andrade, who now leads ATG’s Shared Services division. Chuck brings 17 years of commercial and retail statement auditing experience to the ATG team. He is recognized as a subject matter expert in the areas of statement and disbursement auditing as well as escheatment avoidance. Most recently, Chuck was Director of Operations for PRGX from 1999 until 2013. His statement audit management experience coupled with advanced technology provides an even greater value for our clients.
eReconcile™ is a fully electronic statement audit process. We deliver validated credits ready for deduction with no additional effort by the client required as part of our comprehensive recovery audit service. The paperless process provides fast turnaround from statement request to claim generation. A client unique vendor portal is included for statement submission and vendor research of AP and AR transactions. This added value to vendors increases statement submission response rates and the related identified credits over traditional statement solicitation methods. Research capability provided to vendors through the portal reduces associated client correspondence expense. We incorporate a ticket system for any further help needed by vendors. Lastly, clients benefit from on-line reports including identified vendor master file discrepancies to be corrected.
Ask yourself the following questions to see if it is time to think of a different approach to your statement audit. Are you tired of researching lists of prospective open credits submitted by a statement audit provider? Would you like online, real time reporting and delivery of fully validated credits ready for deduction? Do you want to reduce vendor correspondence labor? Do you need to have your vendor master file cleansed as well? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, learn how ATG’s electronic statement audit solicitation, review and validation processes coupled with a vendor portal provides the most added value at the lowest cost.
[/xf_textblock] [/xf_one_full]
Improve Your of Cash and Improve Vendor Relations
And did we mention the one-time windfall?
All companies strive to optimize cash flow and vendor relations. Recovery audits can challenge both. Traditional recovery audits present other issues as well. Recoveries from a prior year mean grocers lose the use of that cash for 12-18 months. And as it is becoming more common for vendors to place limits on the age of claims they will accept, more and more recoveries are lost completely. For example, Nestle is now telling many grocery clients they won’t accept claims more than six months from the transaction.
But What If I Told You…
There is now a solution that offers near real-time error detection and correction close to the transaction. RecoverNOW™ is already successfully adopted by leading grocery chains to perform…wait for it…MONTHLY audits.
I know, it sounds too good to be true. But here is what is happening:
- Near real-time audits increase recovery because errors are detected and presented as adjustments to individual invoices close to the transaction while still fresh in everyone’s minds.
- With RecoverNOW™, claims feel, like, taste like, and smell like normal invoice adjustments to vendors because they happen so close to the transaction. If fact, it feels like recovery audit has been discontinued.
- Old claims no longer get in the merchants’ way of today’s vendor negotiations.
- Cash flow is accelerated, and…
- There is a one-time windfall in the first year of adopting RecoverNOW™ as the recoveries from the prior year and the current year happening concurrently.
What if Our Clients Told You…
ATG’s RecoverNOW™ can expedite cash recovery and improve vendor relations by eliminating old claims that impact current negotiations. Who says so?
- Hy-Vee, Inc
- “We are getting all the money we deserve and getting it faster. 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.”
- “Traditional post-annual audits were a disaster for vendor relations. 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.”
- Weis Markets
- “Recovery audits always seemed to create tension between the buyers, the audit firm and the vendors. The near real-time audits have actually improved support from our buyers, as well as our vendor relationships.”
- “Being an early adopter…has been a profitable move to both our vendor relationships and our bottom line. I don’t know why any company wouldn’t do what we are doing.”
- Tops Friendly Markets
- “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.”
- “Our external auditors, as well as our partners in the vendor community, are favorably impressed with the improved cost recovery practices RecoverNow™ is providing Tops. Dealing with promotional contracts from one or two years ago is a thing of the past.”
But wait, there’s more. (Did we really say that?)
ATG’s RecoverNOW™ provides more benefit to its retailer users with real-time analytics.,
ATG repurposes data prepared for audit purposes to business intelligence and analytics to provide specific fact-based vendor negotiations needed to improve margins, terms, and funding. Merchandisers benefit from easy-to-access, on-demand vendor scorecards, fact sheets, and system-generated vendor “asks” at the category, sub-category, and item levels.
RecoverNOW™
Replacing legacy recovery audits with near real-time error detection and correction means getting your cash NOW. Accelerating recovery from 18 months to just 90 days from the transaction means improved vendor relations and margins NOW.
To learn more about NOW, contact ATG Vice President Paul Dinkins at pdinkins@atgaudits.com or (970) 672-4147
Weis Markets Cuts Cost of Recovery in Half
[xf_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” align=” space=” margin=’0px’ padding=’30px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′] [xf_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′]Weis Markets Cuts Cost of Recovery in Half
Chicago IL, January 13, 2012 – In 2009, Weis Markets worked with Jack Martin of Audit Technology Group (ATG) to bring its recovery audit process in-house and accelerate reviews closer to the transaction. Today, Weis reports a highly effective program with improved vendor relations, support from buying staff and the cost of recovery cut in half.
Weis CFO Scott Frost states, “Adopting an in-house solution that allows us to audit quarterly has provided multiple benefits for Weis Markets. While we enjoy the cost savings of using our existing staff, there are other intangible benefits. We really like that our people are talking to our buyers instead of an outside firm explaining the errors to them. Recovery audits always seemed to create tension between the buyers, the audit firm and the vendors. The near real-time audits have actually improved support from our buyers, as well as our vendor relationships.”
“Moving the audit closer to the transaction date allows us to address errors sooner. Our vendor partners can rectify inaccuracies in the same funding year, not one or two years later. It has definitely improved the category manager/vendor relationship. And we get our money sooner,” said Frost.
Weis incorporated RecoverNOW™ and ATG-Advantage™ into its recovery audit process. RecoverNOW™ is ATG’s flagship near real-time audit process powered by its advanced web application audit technology. ATG-Advantage™ is an in-house recovery audit solution that gives retail organizations more control of their recovery audits. Ease of use and maximizing the lowest cost of recovery, permit companies to move audits closer to the transaction date instead of the traditional post-annual process.
Frost reports, “Being an early adopter of ATG-Advantage™ has been a profitable move to both our vendor relationships and our bottom line. It replaces traditional recovery auditing. Given the benefits, I believe traditional post-annual recovery auditing will be non-existent in the next 10 years.”
Near real-time recovery auditing was new for Weis’ Accounts Payable Staff Accountant Sheila Heiser. “The ATG solution has been very helpful. I appreciate the ability to see AP inaccuracies almost as soon as they happen so we can address them promptly. I also use the tool to research data outside of cost recovery.”
Paul Dinkins is the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at ATG. “Weis is one of the many Topco members that we serve. Weis was the first company of its size to accelerate recovery audits from annual to quarterly. It is impressive to me that as a regional grocer, Weis has demonstrated a more progressive approach than their national competitors,” said Dinkins.
When asked what he would tell other grocers about RecoverNOW™ and ATG-Advantage™ Scott Frost said, “I don’t know why any company wouldn’t do what we are doing. I really don’t know why any retailer would want to continue with traditional recovery auditing.”
About Weis Markets
Weis Markets operates 161 food stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and West Virginia. For more information about Weis Markets, Inc., please visit www.weis.com or go to www.facebook.com/WeisSuperMarket.
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 as frequently as 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 may 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 (970) 672-4147.
# # # # #
Media Contact: Paul Dinkins, pdinkins@atgaudits.com, (970) 372-4269
Tops Friendly Markets is First Retail Grocer to Adopt Monthly Recovery Audits
[xf_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” align=” space=” margin=’0px’ padding=’30px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′] [xf_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′]Tops CFO reports many levels of success in near real-time audits
Chicago IL, January 5, 2012 – Tops Friendly Markets, its merchandise managers, vendors and accounting firm are seeing impressive benefits since Tops began implementing monthly recovery audits.
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 (970) 672-4147.
# # # # #
Paul Dinkins, pdinkins@atgaudits.com, (970) 372-4269
Near Real-Time Recovery Improves Relationships at Hy-Vee
[xf_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” align=” space=” margin=’0px’ padding=’30px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′] [xf_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′]Near Real-Time Recovery Improves Relationships at Hy-Vee
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 (970) 672-4147.
# # # # #
Paul Dinkins, pdinkins@atgaudits.com, (970) 372-4269
ATG Offers Its Recovery Audit Solution to Internal Audit Teams
[xf_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” align=” space=” margin=’0px’ padding=’30px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′] [xf_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” animation_type=” animation_duration=’0.5′ animation_delay=’0.5′]ATG Offers Its Recovery Audit Solution to Internal Audit Teams
Chicago IL, August 25, 2011 – Audit Technology Group LLC (ATG) will begin promoting ATG-Advantage™ to the retail sector today. ATG-Advantage™ is a two-prong program to empower a company’s internal recovery audit team to achieve the lowest cost. ATG provides the preparation and hosting of client data, then trains the staff to use ATG’s eRecover™ and eResolve™ web application audit tools. The end-to-end recovery process provides the client team the ability to find virtually all amounts owed from vendors and generates the correcting documents in near real-time.
“After the success of ATG-Advantage™ in the grocery sector, we are now ready to expand this service offering into the larger mass retail marketplace,” says ATG President Vince Creadon. “ATG-Advantage™ allows internal recovery audit teams to retain the level of control that some clients prefer, with technology that helps identify recoveries more accurately and efficiently. With clients having the ability to run the process more frequently, recoveries occur closer to the original transaction date which benefits vendor relations. As we like to say, ‘everyone wins when you get it right sooner’.”
“ATG-Advantage™ achieved some unprecedented results in the grocery sector,” reports Jack Martin, ATG’s EVP, Audit Operations for the eastern United States. “One northeastern grocery chain realized more internal recovery in the first year of application than what was historically realized by outside professional recovery audit service providers. It has cut both the time and the cost of their recovery in half.”
About ATG-Advantage™
Bringing the recovery audit process in-house achieves the lowest possible cost of recovery. ATG-Advantage™ is ATG’s service option for use by clients’ internal staff. It provides ATG data preparation and hosting along with deployment of its eRecover™ and eResolve™ web audit tools. ATG provides training and support to ensure the optimum performance of the client team. ATG is readily available, as needed, to augment a client’s staff when additional resources are required.
The ATG team conducts a one-time setup to convert, analyze and reconfigure the transaction data tables for migration into its audit tools. ATG establishes audit routines based on the supporting data. Each audit routine is codified and then accessed through a series of drop-down menus within eRecover™.
After each client audit routine is refined and tested, ATG trains the client staff to maximize ATG-Advantage’s uses and applications. ATG has incorporated links within ATG-Advantage™ to access video tutorials for easy reference when needed.
Clients transfer their data via secure FTP monthly or on another scheduled interval. When received, the data sets are systematically and securely appended into a relational database using pre-configured scripts.
ATG-Advantage™ offers virtually no risk for implementers. 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.
# # # # #
SOURCE Audit Technology Group LLC