Supplier Statement Reconciliation is often considered time consuming and not as important as Duplicate Checker Automation and Recovery Audits.
In truth a scheduled or automated Supplier Statement Audit can help authorities maintain a good working relationship with suppliers, helping them to be paid promptly; equally allowing authorities to identify and recover errors and outstanding credits promptly. Protecting cash flow and account balances, for both parties.
Supplier statements need to include details of invoices, credits, discounts, and payments. In most cases they are supplied by authorities, at best Excel or CSV files and in some cases even pdfs. Reconciliation therefore by its nature, is a time consuming and often manual process; so it is often side-lined or done irregularly by busy and overstretched AP departments.
Often Statement Reconciliations are only done at the behest of a concerned supplier, or when the authority has engaged with a Recovery Audit.
Why do authorities need a regular supplier reconciliation?
Regular scheduling or automating supplier statements reconciliation will enable AP staff to spot errors, inaccuracies, or mismatches promptly.
It is an often possible occurrence, that supplier credits are applied to a GL and not the PL, making a regular Supplier Statement Audit a needed control for Accounts Payable to ensure their ledgers are accurate and balanced.
Regular audits can also help identify issues in the Master Supplier File, such as duplicate entries that can cause issues with supplier Payments and Credits being miss-posted!
The larger volume of suppler statements an authority can check, the greater the rewards in payment controls and retained revenues. However, it can be a time consuming task for an often overstretched Account Payables team to achieve on their own. This is where a little help can go a long way to resolving those issues, allowing authorities to promptly and continually control their supplier spend.
Most accountants are aware that supplier statement reconciliations are good practice and have real value, but there are many challenges with the process.
It’s a time-consuming exercise to undertake, and, for a busy Accounts Payable team that is dealing with a lack of resources or are just overworked, it’s one of the first activities to be dropped, so it’s easy to build up a backlog. Some companies choose not to do supplier statement reconciliations at all, or only for a small number of suppliers.
How can Liberata Help?
Our Supplier Statement Reconciliation Service provides a comprehensive managed service to complete the reconciliations for you. Our specialist team of professionals is supported by our proprietary technology to identify errors and omissions. We’ll improve your cashflow and productivity by finding credits, discounts or adjustments you weren’t aware of, identifying duplicate payments and by cleansing your GRNI accounts.
If you would like to learn more about how we can help or if you would like to discuss our fully managed Finance and Account services further please contact us by clicking here.
