The client

VINCI Construction UK limited is the main trading arm of VINCI PLC. Trading in the UK through three main divisions, Building, Facilities, and Civil Engineering. It ranks among the top 20 contractors in the UK and is 100% controlled by VINCI S.A. one of the major contracting companies in the world.  Specialising in civil engineering, construction and facilities management, undertaking new build and refurbishment schemes as well as long-term contracts to operate and maintain assets and facilities.

Clients include national government, local authorities, transport bodies, hospitals, universities, housing providers, retailers and commercial firms in every sector.

The requirement

Recognising that an Accounts Payable review could identify any over-payments and deliver potential cash recoveries completely risk free as well as independently validating AP systems and existing duplicate software protocols were also working well. Rockford Associates were identified as the best solution provider and contracted to complete an AP and VAT Review.

The solution

Rockford Associates reviewed four years of data, extracting AP transaction data directly from the COINS Accounts transaction data. 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 (Rockford is Cyber Essentials Plus Certified) and Rockford produced AP Analytics reports by running the data through its bespoke data mining software “Pathfinder”.

A senior Recovery Auditor delivered a full end to end review. With access to mail, systems and scanning in place the Auditor identified, verified and recovered a number of over-payments by conducting a seamless statement review whilst concurrently analysing Rockford AP Analytic reports.

The audit was delivered 100% remotely whilst the VINCI AP team were working a Hybrid/Remote working policy to ensure the minimum of disruption to the Finance Team.

The results

In total 653,000 transactions over the four-year period were analysed, 99.993% of transactions by volume and 99.998% by value were correctly processed.

Of the transactions reviewed 100 overpayments were identified, resulting in a five-figure cash sum recovery.  In addition to the recoveries VINCI 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