Overview
For nearly two decades, apexanalytix has partnered with one of the world’s leading coffeehouse and retail brands to safeguard billions in annual spend. This long-standing relationship has strengthened financial accountability across the company’s global footprint.
With millions of invoices processed each year and expenditures exceeding $10B, the scale of operations demands deep insight into where errors occur, how suppliers perform, and which financial controls require attention. apexanalytix’s work supports these needs by surfacing risks and improving the organization’s financial resilience.
Challenge
As transaction volumes and supplier relationships expanded, so did the risk of errors and unprocessed credits from suppliers. In 2024, the company processed 5.5M invoices and engaged 2,000+ suppliers, with a focus on identifying duplicate payments and aged credits older than 180 days.
Key challenges included:
- Volume: Amount of suppliers and invoices
- Systems: Complexity of different systems used by supplier to submit invoices and get paid
- Supplier Outreach: Working with global suppliers of various sizes, locations and languages
Solution
apexanalytix conducted detailed supplier statement reviews to uncover credits not visible within ERP data and performed thorough analyses of invoice-level transactions. The 2024 audit cycle focused on disbursement reviews, duplicate recoveries identified through technology and supplier statements, and supplier statement reviews of aged credits beyond 180 days.
Results
The 2024 audit produced $3M in recoveries across 222 transactions. Most—approximately $1.5M—came from the past two years, although some findings dated back to 2020, highlighting the value of historical visibility.
One newly onboarded supplier accounted for the most significant activity. Poor product quality led to large volumes of returns in 2023 and 2024, but credits were delayed or not issued, resulting in substantial recoveries. In total, 60+ credits totaling nearly $800,000 were identified from this supplier alone, highlighting the importance of reviewing payments to suppliers with performance issues.
Three suppliers together represented 55% of total audit findings, with additional recoveries tied to rebates, duplicate payments, and other discrepancies.
Top 6 Root Causes for Overpayment Recoveries
Returns & Cancellations
Example: Credits for returned goods or canceled services were never issued or communicated to Accounts Payable, resulting in an overpayment.
Recommendation: Strengthen communication between operations and AP so returns and cancellations are shared immediately and require suppliers to issue credit memos promptly for all returned or canceled items.
Overpayment
Example: The company paid more than the correct amount due, often because of tax errors, billing mistakes, incorrect supplier selection, or system issues.
Recommendation: Implement stronger invoice validation checks—especially for tax, supplier selection, and billing accuracy—and requiring exception review for high-risk or unusual invoice amounts.
Rebates
Example: The company earned rebates based on spend or volume, but the associated credits were not issued or captured.
Recommendation: Track rebate-eligible purchases centrally, document rebate terms in supplier contracts, and create periodic reviews to ensure earned rebates are invoiced and applied.
Pricing Discrepancy
Example: The price billed on the invoice does not match the agreed rate in the contract or purchase order.
Recommendation: Use automated three-way matching and ensure contract rates and PO pricing are kept up to date, so discrepancies are flagged and corrected before payment.
Inconsistent invoice coding
Example: Invoices are coded incorrectly or differently than expected, which can cause them to be routed, recorded, or paid incorrectly.
Recommendation: Be consistent through clearer processes, better personnel training, and stronger system checks.
Multiple Related Suppliers
Example: The same vendor has more than one profile in the vendor master.
Recommendation: Clean up the vendor master to remove duplicate or unnecessary accounts.
Conclusion
One supplier with ongoing product quality issues accounted for $800K in recoveries, showing how a single problem can create significant financial impact. The other issues identified will need attention within the organization, and if some cannot be fixed immediately, they should be aware for future recovery audits.
apexanalytix has partnered with this company for twenty years to recover overpayments and identify root causes.
If there is a new supplier that creates $800K in overpayments, how is your company going to find out?
Uncover hidden supplier overpayments and recover what you’re owed. Speak to an expert.
