FAQ

We provide consulting services that improve cost control project controls in the beginning of your project and construction audit services that make sure your project stays on track.

We partner with your construction procurement groups by providing feedback on the RFP documentation, assisting with your review of responses and bid-leveling, providing feedback during the contract preparation phase and ensuring specific costs like labor and insurance reasonably approximate cost in a cost plus and lump sum construction environment.

PRGX provides pay application certification services. We review each monthly pay application and work with general contractors and clients project managers to review adjustments to pay application values for charges found not to be compliant with the agreements and identify issues that are not sufficiently defined in existing agreements. We work with general contractors to make sure adjustments are made and any clarifications are made on an ongoing basis so there are minimal points of contention when the project is completed.

PRGX Construction Services can provide construction audit services even if we have not been engaged it the pre-construction or construction phases of your project. We can review the agreements, perform a contract risk assessment, and audit the final billings to find miscalculations and charges that are not contractually allowable or consistent with industry standards. We typically find average error rates around 0.5%. on large construction projects and 2.5% on small projects. Results will depend on contract terms, the types of construction projects and the specific general contractors you have selected for your project.

PRGX has worked with clients on more than 200 construction projects in the past 3 years on projects totaling more than $27B in spend. The Construction Services team is made up of more than 20 members—each with specific expertise. Our team of includes:

• MBAs
• CPAs
• Certified Construction Auditors
• Certified Cost Control Professionals
• Civil Engineers
• Mechanical Engineers
• Licensed Architects
• Certified Fraud Examiners
• Six Sigma Black Belts
• Supply Chain Professionals
• Project Management Professionals

We commonly remove $500k to $2MM from project costs in our pre-construction phases of the process and stay engaged with the project to ensure those controls are not circumvented.

• Minimized cost escalation
• Improved cost control
• Increased transparency
• Implementation of best practices
• Incremental contractual improvement – we make recommendations that can be applied to future agreements.
• Staff augmentation – We review invoices and change orders provided by general contractors, validate the calculations, make sure supporting documentation is complete before it gets to your project managers for review, allowing them extra time to focus on project execution

• Hidden or unintended profit in
• Labor Rates
• Insurance Rates
• Equipment Rates
• Carrying Costs (Interest and Equity)
• Unallowable or duplicated costs
• Home office overhead
• Warranty and re-work
• Duplication of scope
• Unapproved markups
• Miscalculations
• Unreconciled project costs
• Unrealized savings
• Fee miscalculations
• Balance forward issues
• Tax and property tax errors and miscalculations
• Unresolved accruals and estimates
• As our Construction Services program evolves with your clients we provide period reviews of our findings to show trends and provide training on how to identify project overcharges and risk

While other providers outsource this important function, PRGX has fully certified data privacy and security protocols managed in-house.

Pricing and quantity variances, allowances, rebates and freight.

We will need access to agreed contractual terms for pricing, rebates, and allowances, as well as line-item data, but generally it requires a low level of effort from the client.

Suppliers aren’t even aware you are conducting a Billing Compliance Audit.

Where your company generates detailed purchase, good receipts data, this is an ideal approach for objectively determining if the carefully negotiated pricing, allowances and rebates are being accurately tracked, invoiced and paid.

A Billing Compliance Audit is a low touch, data driven audit which entails an in-depth analysis of your purchase, receipts and invoice line-item data to ensure price and quantity billing compliance. Additionally, by incorporating the review of contract documentation, we cross validate pricing terms, as well as other contracted commercial programs, such as rebates and allowances to ensure you’re receiving the full economic benefit you negotiated.

There are many things that can result in compliance errors, including:

• Ambiguous contract terms
• Differing interpretations of contract terms
• System and control limitations
• Incongruent or overlapping systems
• Uncontracted activities
• Supplier self-reporting
• Highly complex procurement process
• Complex supply chains
• Organizational changes
• Supplier changes
• Personnel turnover
• Human error

Even with the most sophisticated ERP systems, errors can still occur. Common mistakes that result in lost profit include:

• Missed discounts
• Overpayments
• Duplicate payments
• Under-deductions
• Promotional pricing errors

PRGX Contract Compliance Audits are an extremely effective way to recover lost profit. Our clients typically get back up to 5% of their spend with a supplier.

Your PRGX audit team will walk you through the process, but in general client preparation involves identifying stakeholders and achieving their buy-in, examining your internal processes and determining the scope of work, and gathering the necessary documents.

PRGX will review your supplier contracts with you to determine where your greatest value will be found, assessing over 25 different risk attributes like spend amount, complexity, past issues, and supplier strategic importance.

PRGX’s proven Contract Compliance process is broken down into four phases:

1. Prepare: This initial stage is designed to set the program foundation and confirm the charter, educate and align stakeholders, assess and qualify, and design the program plan.
2. Prep and Plan: During the next phase, PRGX will obtain a work order release, acquire your data, finalize the execution plan, engage your suppliers and acquire their data, select samples and perform pretesting.
3. Execute: The active audit portion of our process involves testing, interviews and observation, resolving impediments and clarifying intent, preliminary conclusions and solicitation of response.
4. Resolve: At the completion of the audit execution, PRGX will present issues to you for approval, release a final audit report, negotiate and resolve all approved issues, and educate stakeholders on the process and outcomes.

There are many factors to consider when choosing your contract compliance audit provider:

• Expertise and experience – PRGX has been the industry leader in these types of recovery audit for more than 50 years.
• Global capabilities– PRGX is truly global, with local staff who know the customs, currencies and languages.
• Innovative technology– PRGX has proprietary, purpose-built technology that enables faster, more effective audits.
• Data privacy and security – While other providers outsource this important function, PRGX has fully certified data privacy and security protocols managed in-house.

PRGX Contract Compliance Audits are performed by the industry’s most experienced auditors.

While the cost of a contract compliance audit varies based on project size and scope, in many cases PRGX Contract Compliance Audits can be designed to be self-funding. The amount of money we recover generally exceeds the cost, resulting in a net positive for our clients.

An accelerated audit is one in which the transactions are being audited as close to real-time as possible – within days of the transaction versus months (or even years!) after. By catching errors as they happen, accelerated audits help you reduce your financial risk.

When you partner with PRGX, your time commitment will be minimal. Thanks to our highly experienced auditors and heavy investment in technology, we’ve reduced the amount of client involvement down to just 1-2 hours per week.

PRGX Contract Compliance Audit typically takes five months from the kick-off meeting through to final recovery of funds.

There are many benefits of conducting a contract compliance audit:

• Assess and improve supplier compliance.
• Reduce financial and operational risk.
• Recover past overcharges and improve cash flow.
• Reduce operating expenses going forward.
• Improve contract structure and language to eliminate ambiguity.

The primary reason to conduct a contract compliance audit is to ensure that the value you negotiated into your supplier contracts is what you actually receive. Additionally, the PRGX Contract Compliance Audit will uncover the issues in your processes that caused the errors in the first place, helping you reduce the risk of future financial loss.

Contract compliance audits are a highly beneficial practice in just about every industry, including retail, banking, consumer packaged goods, insurance, manufacturing, telecommunications, media and entertainment, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and utilities.

Any organization that contracts with external suppliers would benefit from a contract compliance audit. The complexities of the supply chain as well as a global supplier base, varying contract terms, siloed functions and fragmented systems make it difficult to ensure that the costs and terms negotiated up front are what you actually receive.

Organizations spend a significant amount of time negotiating supplier agreements based on a shared vision of how those agreements will be implemented. However, over time, system upgrades, personnel turnover and other factors can affect how that agreement is actually implemented – costing you money in the process.

Contract compliance is a type of financial audit that examines the terms, conditions and intent of supplier agreements (contracts) to ensure that what you negotiated is what you actually received. Learn more about the PRGX Contract Compliance Audit here.

There are many things that can result in source-to-pay errors, including:

• Highly complex procurement process
• High transaction volume
• Siloed business functions
• Organizational changes
• Supplier changes
• Personnel turnover
• Incomplete, complex or conflicting invoicing instructions
• Varying locations, platforms and processes
• Human error

Even with the most sophisticated ERP systems, errors can still occur. Common mistakes that result in lost profit include:

• Missed discounts
• Overpayments
• Duplicate payments
• Under-deductions
• Promotional pricing errors

PRGX Recovery Audits are a highly effective way to recover lost profit and boost your bottom line. We typically recover $1M for every $1B in spend.

Your PRGX audit team will walk you through the process, but in general client preparation for a recovery audit involves identifying stakeholders and achieving their buy-in, examining your internal processes and determining the scope of work, and gathering the necessary documents.

The optimal frequency of conducting recovery audits varies based on your needs. In addition to routine annual audits, it’s recommended to conduct a recovery audit when your organization is undergoing changes – new processes, new technology, an acquisition or merger, system upgrade or personnel shifts – as well as when your data isn’t consistent or if you have internal systems that do not fully integrate.

There are many factors to consider when choosing your recovery audit provider:

• Expertise and experience – PRGX has been the industry leader in these types of recovery audit for more than 50 years.
• Global capabilities – PRGX is truly global, with local staff who know the customs, currencies and languages.
• Innovative technology – PRGX has proprietary, purpose-built technology that enables faster, more effective audits.
• Data privacy and security – While other providers outsource this important function, PRGX has fully certified data privacy and security protocols managed in-house.

PRGX has the industry’s most experienced recovery audit professionals who oversee every audit we perform.

An accelerated recovery audit is one in which the transactions are being audited as close to real-time as possible – within days of the transaction versus months (or even years!) after. By catching errors as they happen, accelerated audits help you reduce your financial risk.

When you partner with PRGX, your time commitment will be minimal. Thanks to our highly experienced auditors and heavy investment in technology, we’ve reduced the amount of client involvement down to just 1-2 hours per week.

PRGX Recovery Audit typically takes five months from the kick-off meeting through to final recovery of funds.

In many cases, PRGX Recovery Audits can be designed to be self-funding, or contingency-based, which means the cost you pay is a percentage of your total cash recoveries. If no cash is recovered, no payment is owed.

The PRGX Recovery Audit process involves six steps:

1. Pre-audit planning: This is a kick-off meeting to confirm audit goals, scope and key performance indicators and discuss data acquisition.
2. Data acquisition: In this phase, we’ll establish protocol and sFTP for secure data transfer and obtain remote, read-only access to relevant systems.
3. Discovery and plan development: PRGX will meet with key leadership and contacts to gain insight and understanding regarding funds negotiated, sensitive suppliers and more.
4. Audit execution: Our audit team will execute data reviews, validate potential claims and identify root causes, document proof and enter into the claims management system.
5. Validation and recovery: At this time, our team will share sample claims and review with you, present claims to your suppliers, and recover funds.
6. Reporting: You’ll receive ongoing feedback with regular updates to monitor audit progress plus 24/7 web-based insights.

There are many benefits of conducting a recovery audit:

• Identify where and why profit leakage is occurring.
• Reduce financial and operational risk.
• Recover past overpayments and improve cash flow.
• Reduce operating expenses going forward.
• Reduce supplier complacency and improve compliance.

The primary reason to conduct a recovery audit is to recoup lost profit. In even the best-designed source-to-pay process, as much as 5-10% of value gets lost. Additionally, the PRGX Recovery Audit will also uncover the issues in your processes that caused the errors in the first place, helping you reduce the risk of future financial loss.

Recovery audits are becoming a best practice in more and more industries, including retail, banking, consumer packaged goods, insurance, manufacturing, telecommunications, media and entertainment, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and utilities.

Almost all transaction-intense organizations should consider a recovery audit. The complexities of the supply chain, as well as a global supplier base, varying contract terms, siloed functions and fragmented systems, make it difficult to ensure that the costs and terms negotiated up front are accurately reflected in the back-end payment process.

There are two primary types of recovery audit: an accounts payable recovery audit and a retail merchandise recovery audit.

1. What is an Accounts Payable Recovery Audit? An accounts payable (AP) recovery audit is the practice of analyzing AP transactions to identify and recover profit that has been lost in the source-to-pay (S2P) cycle due to overpayments, under-deductions, missed discounts and other errors. It’s considered a best practice by the world’s leading companies.
2. What is a Retail Merchandise Recovery Audit? A retail merchandise recovery audit is the practice of analyzing retail merchandise transactions to identify and recover profit that has been lost due to erroneous pricing and promotions, missed discounts, under-deductions and other vendor funding miscalculations. As the name suggests, retail merchandise recovery audits are specific to the retail industry.

A recovery audit is the practice of reviewing source-to-pay transactions and the related supporting data and processes to identify and recover overpayments, under-deductions and other erroneous payments to suppliers.