One of the major benefits that the auditors brought to me whilst I was Finance Director at Unichem was added value services.
I took comfort in the fact that if necessary I could call on a resource outside the company structure to enable me to resolve any issues that might arise. It was a fresh and experienced approach that I felt was sometimes lacking within the company.
Examples during my time included:-
- The resolution of problems within our scanning system.
- Reconciliation of supplier accounts that were beyond the experience of my AP team. On one occasion this resulted in a recovery in excess of 1 million pounds. The supplier concerned was actually claiming £4m from Unichem.
- Another involved the reconciliation of a subsidiary’s Euro account. I was able to rely on the audit team to carry out this work until we were able to recruit. They then trained the individual for us.
- Analysis of cash flow trends to enable me to prove to my Group Head Office that Unichem were not paying suppliers early to the detriment of cash.
These services were provided at cost with a small percentage added for management time and were instrumental in building what I considered to be a strong and effective partnership.
As proof of the above I am still using the Profit Recovery Solutions service
James Frost ex-Director of Finance at Unichem