Overview
Corbel are award winning architects, craftsmen and craftswomen who transform ideas into reality.
They specialise in the repair and creative adaption of a wide range of historic and modern buildings. Whether that’s a small contemporary house extension, grand design, or sensitive repair and restoration of a historic or listed property, they use their creative skills, collaborative approach, cost control knowledge and 20+ years’ experience to provide a streamlined and hassle-free process.
The Challenge
Corbel selected Liberata’s Duplicate Payment Recovery Service as a no-risk way to identify and recover any erroneous payments, and gain insight into improvements that could be made to their systems, processes and policies. During the project a significant duplicate payment of over £11,000 was identified, but the recovery proved far from straightforward.
The Solution
In consultation with Corbel, the project was scoped to review 4 years’ worth of purchase ledger data, going back to 2017. The data extract was prepared, verified and imported into our state-of-the-art Finance Cloud system, which uses sophisticated Machine Learning algorithms to examine the data and identify duplicate payments. A small number of duplicate payments were identified, with the most significant being a payment of over £11,000, which was the result of a double-posting error.
We validated the finding with Corbel and contacted the supplier with evidence and they acknowledged that a duplicate payment had been made. However, the supplier then requested further time to investigate, which became a protracted exercise due to their accountant being busy with other matters. Queries were also raised by the supplier regarding other outstanding invoices, CIS deductions and previous payments made. Sticking to a disciplined process of regular contact, including escalations to our Senior Finance Manager, the Liberata team pushed to resolve the matter.
Eventually, after a period of no response we sent a formal letter advising that further action would be taken if the matter was not satisfactorily resolved within seven days. The result was an immediate prioritisation of the matter by the supplier and all outstanding details were provided in the form of a supplier statement.
The Outcome
After clarifying the outstanding queries and obtaining copies of missing invoices for Corbel, we obtained confirmation that the supplier would refund the original overpayment as soon as possible. The supplier confirmed that the refund was processed and the recovery was completed, proving the importance of a strong process and persistence in maximising recovery.
“We really appreciated the Liberata team’s expertise and persistence on this project. They communicated to us clearly throughout and delivered a great result. We were not aware of the large duplicate payment until Liberata found it and, as any fees payable are totally contingent on recovered funds, I would highly recommend this service to other firms.”
Eve Warren – Business Manager, Corbel
