Retail Accelerated Audit Delivers $13M in Fee Savings

The retail industry has a complicated road to profit — razor-thin margins, ever-changing pricing lists, and the constant challenge of keeping up with rebates, promos, and discounts. Audits are a critical path to protecting those margins. But time matters. A major US retailer was losing time and money on a post-audit process that had grown slow, expensive, and flat in results. They partnered with PRGX, choosing the Retail Merchandise Profit Recovery audit program to accelerate claim identification, improve accuracy, and reduce upstream errors. 

The Challenge: Slow Collections, Rising Fees, Flat Returns 

The client’s post-audit recovery process was spanning nearly two years from event to collection, with two external firms managing the work. This is a common practice in retail — transaction and discount volume is so high that companies sometimes engage two auditors. But inefficiencies in the primary audit process meant the secondary firm was picking up higher-than-expected recoveries — a sign that claims were being missed or delayed upstream. 

Despite this, fees continued to grow while recoveries remained flat year over year. The client was paying more and getting the same results. 

The Approach: Faster, Smarter, More Accurate 

PRGX proposed a fundamentally different approach: accelerate the audit process and develop more accurate claims to cash. Rather than simply reviewing transactions after the fact, PRGX worked with the client to improve upstream processes and reduce the errors that were creating recoverable claims in the first place. 

The goal was twofold — get to claims faster, and generate fewer claims to begin with. 

The Results: Fewer Errors, Faster Recoveries 

Claim identification was accelerated significantly, which in turn improved reporting and enabled defect remediation at the source. The total post-audit pool was reduced by 10% — meaning fewer errors were making it through the system. 

The client was able to significantly reduce fees while recoveries were accelerated by nine months, dramatically improving cash flow timing. Over three years, the engagement delivered $13M in fee savings from a reduced rate structure alone. 

Improved reporting gave internal teams better visibility into where defects were occurring, turning a reactive recovery process into a proactive one. 

Ready to Recover More with Accelerated Audits? 

PRGX is the global leader in recovery audit and S2P data intelligence. Our tech-enabled programs don’t just recover lost spend — they fix the processes that created the leakage. Speak with a PRGX expert to see how we can help you recover lost profit and refine your processes for future savings.