Industry: Service, Restaurant
Revenue: 1 billion + 

Challenge
A national restaurant chain called upon Brown Smith Wallace for our specialized data analysis expertise to help identify and recoup funds related to duplicate payments made over a two year period. More than 500,000 records needed to be analyzed.

Solution
Once the Data Analysis team began its investigation, it discovered a number of weaknesses in the overall control structure, increasing the potential for duplicate payments. Payments were being made at multiple locations due to a lack of communication. The inability to quickly retrieve documents allowed payments to be made to the same vendor under different vendor numbers in the system. Customers often sent the company checks to refund these overpayments, but personnel did not know how to apply these payments, resulting in a build up of unapplied cash in Accounts Receivable.   

Our data analysis experts made suggestions for improvements to the process. We were able to help substantiate the need to invest in new imaging software and to implement more effective internal controls.The data analysis team helped the client collect refunds it didn’t know it was owed due to numerous duplicate payments.

If you would like to discuss how data analysis or ACL can help you improve your business contact, Janet Beckmann, CPA, at 314.983.1254, jbeckmann@bswllc.com.