“Contract compliance audits are marriage counseling, not divorce consulting. Ideally you’re looking for ways to make the relationship better moving forward. I think a lot of suppliers will treat it that way if it’s communicated in that manner.”
Anyone who has worked in procurement for more than a year or two has probably found themselves in a situation where they suspect that they are overpaying on a supplier contract. How can you be sure and what should you do if you uncover overpayment? In some cases overpayment issues are based on billing errors, and in other cases, agreed upon contract terms are not being adhered to by suppliers. Either way, third-party compliance audits can be essential.
Ben Evans is the President at Auditech Solutions, a company that provides accounts payable and contract compliance audits to help companies determine whether they are overpaying on invoices. He points out that not only may audits need to be done when a company suspects something is wrong with a set of invoices, but that it may be advantageous to include an audit clause in certain contracts.
In this conversation, Ben and host Philip Ideson:
Discuss the value of inserting audit causes into supplier contracts, what they should look like, and how to negotiate them
Take a deeper dive into compliance audits and how to make them a regular part of a supplier governance program
And cover the ‘nuts and bolts’ of updates, including the different types of commercial models for hiring and compensating an audit firm
