Duplicate Payments

Accept they happen,

Use IDEA to find them

Andrew Cushion

Group Internal Audit

Dairy Crest

DAIRY CREST

Company Profile

Cheese

• Dairy Crest is the leading

supplier of value-added

cheddar in the UK

• We sell 120,000 tonnes of

cheese per year in the UK

Household

• Supply over 600m litres of

milk per year

• Doorstep reach covers the

whole of the South of

England, serving 1.8m

homes a day

Liquid Products

• Dairy Crest has a 32%

share of all liquid milk sales

into UK multiples, making

us a strong No. 2 in this

market

Ingredients

• We are the largest UK Dairy

ingredients business and a

No1 exporter

Spreads

• Production of Packet Butter

has increased by over 400%

• Our key brand Clover is the

clear market leader in this

sector

Fresh Dairy Products

• Dairy Crest continue to hold

a leadership position in the

Fresh Dairy Products market

• We continue to build on the

successes of our brands Frijj

and Yoplait

Accounts Payable Review – Choices ?

External

• No resource or expertise

in-house

• Better sales technique (No

win, no fee..)

• Specialist programmes

established by “Experts”

• Politically better if report of

errors provided by a

“Consultant”

• Access to data

Internal

• Can be done in-house!

• IDEA is the solution

• Can be part of people’s

development

• Enables better

understanding of

Accounts Payable

function

• Easier to find solutions,

fixes

Accounts Payable Review – Steps

1. Obtain the data, (AP file and Supplier masterfile)

2. Import

3. Reconcile and validate data where possible

• Link AP file to Supplier Masterfile to identify Supplier

• Obtain site from Internal Invoice ref

4. Perform testing

• Same Supplier Invoice No.,date and amount

• Same Supplier Invoice No. and amount

• Same Amount and date ( Good Luck……..)

5. Identify and clear “corrected” entries

6. Review Supplier Masterfile

7. Extract reports for further investigation and reporting

8. Celebrate “unexpected income”

Accounts Payable Review – Same Inv No, Date & Amt

Accounts Payable Review – Same Inv No. & Amt

Accounts Payable review

Review of Supplier masterfile & Invoices processed and paid

• 12,000 Suppliers on System

• A number of suppliers apparently set up more than once

• Quality of data ………..room for improvement

• 8,446 used in previous year

• 1,400 used only once

• 3,500 used 5 times or less

• 1,600 with spend less than £500 in previous year

Accounts Payable review

Lessons learnt

• Need to understand AP systems, processes and

controls

• Must set “economic” levels to review

• “Areas for improvement” should be addressed ASAP

• Establish macros or better still…IDEA User Group

Accounts Payable review

What else can you do?

• Identify “duplicated” suppliers

• Identify key suppliers to the business

• Link AP with GL, identifying expenditure by category by

supplier, opportunities for rationalisation

• Carry out VAT testing