The client

One of the 24 world-class Russell Group institutions and located in the heart of the UK, the University of Sheffield is driven by outstanding people working as one. It has over 30,000 students from 150 countries, 8,000 staff, including 1,500 of the world’s leading academics and over 300,000 alumni in 205 countries across the world.

The University works on joint research projects with major multinational businesses, international organisations, global charities and governments – giving unparalleled access into the current issues facing society as a whole. Through over 80 research projects, Sheffield is supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to achieve dignity, peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future.

Sheffield champions the importance of research and believes that people and ideas are key to solving the most prominent global challenges. Its innovation and education not only transforms the lives of its graduates, but shapes the world we live in and in the most recent UK Research Excellence Framework, 92% of Sheffield’s research was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent. Its four flagship institutes bring together internationally recognised experts from across different academic disciplines who share a vision to make change happen: Energy Institute, Neuroscience Institute, Healthy Lifespan Institute and Institute for Sustainable Food.

The requirement

The University of Sheffield recognised an Accounts Payable review could deliver potential cash recoveries, add monies to its “bottom line” and independently validate its systems and processes were still working well. It acknowledged an in-depth and thorough analysis of Accounts Payable transactions and payments consumes precious and often scarce resources meaning it is logical to assign the works to an independent Accounts Payable Recovery provider consistently motivated to identify, validate and recover any monies due.

The solution

Rockford Associates reviewed six years of data, extracting AP transaction data directly from their SAP system. The process was simple and straight forward as no scripting or software development was required. The data was uploaded to Rockford’s secure share file site, then processed via its bespoke data mining software “Pathfinder”.

Services were procured via Crown Commercial Services (CCS) procurement compliant Framework Agreement reference RM6226.

The results

In total 698,507 transactions were analysed, 99.995% of transactions by volume and 99.996% by value were correctly processed. Of the transactions reviewed only 36 exceptions were identified.

In addition to the exceptions identified the University of Sheffield welcomed Rockford’s independent validation and positive reassurance that their internal controls and duplicate software processes were operating effectively and clearly within the parameters of a well-managed organisation.