The Profit Source

The Profit Source, LLC, headquartered in Richmond, VA, was established in 1996 as a privately owned LLC (Limited Liability Company).

We are classified as a Minority Business and prior to the formation of The Profit Source, the founders were top performing senior auditors for two of the largest Supplier Payment Recovery firms in the United States for more than eight years.

While the majority of our business has been located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., we have clients located outside of this region, including California. At least one of the principals of The Profit Source personally supervises every audit on a full time basis, which ensures the highest quality of audit recoveries. Maintaining good vendor relations is of utmost importance and we adhere to or exceed our client’s standards.

We have set high auditing standards and ethics and have never lost a client! In other words our client retention rate is 100%. We feel there are very few, if any, audit firms that can boast this.

What we do:

We enhance our client’s bottom line profits by identifying and recovering monies missed or lost through the purchasing and payables process. In addition to developing a “partner” relationship with all of our clients that allows both parties to learn from each other, we have spent considerable time and energy to develop “in-house” auditing tools that allow our auditors to maximize recoveries for our clients. Each audit and client has unique needs. Therefore, we customize queries and programs “on the fly.” Our turnaround time for requests is usually within 24 hours. We have also developed Claims Management^© – this is our in-house monitoring and tracking system that allows auditors to document errors, create claim/debit forms, and monitor the claim status of thousands of claims. Claims Management^© also allows us to produce customized client management reports as often and as soon as requested. All claim copies are back-end imaged at The Profit Source for future reference.

Our auditing staff has been performing payment recovery services since 1987 and eighty percent of our auditors have had many years of AP experience before becoming auditors. On the average, our auditors have in excess of thirteen (13) years of AP auditing and recovery experience. Our auditors follow a detailed audit procedure to ensure thorough, accurate, and legitimate claim findings. If required, all claims can be pre-approved before deduction.

While we are heavy users of technology, we do not rely on “programs” to do all of our work. We provide more than a computer audit. Our auditors learned to audit using their experience and knowledge of accounts payable procedures. Over the years, their auditing skills have become exceptional – a merger of skills and technology. For example, our audit procedure for identifying duplicate payments will utilize the results of five to seven reports, each one tailored for a specific client.

Because of the flexibility of our systems and the individual needs of our clients, we develop customized reports for each engagement. At a minimum, we provide claims listings reports, grouped and sorted by any or all of the following: vendor number, vendor name, department, error type, claim date, and claim size. Reports are provided as frequently as needed/requested. After completion of the audit, a Management Report is created and personally presented at a meeting to assist our client in identifying and correcting any observed or identified weaknesses. Included with the Management Report are other reports that we perceive may be helpful to our client or that our client has requested.

The Profit Source has been successful in auditing diverse industries, encompassing all error types possible. We pride ourselves on our thoroughness by looking at every transaction. In addition, whenever we have performed a secondary audit, we have always recovered additional profits for our clients. In some situations, we have recovered three to four times the amount originally recovered by the primary audit firm. No matter how good money is at “hiding,” we are even better at finding it.

We are knowledgeable in a wide variety of industries including Service, Distribution, Manufacturing, Wholesale, Retail, etc. and have a recovery rate of approximately 98% of the claims we identify. Typically, each auditor reviews one supplier at a time, unless we find it advantageous to divide the audit into projects. We review every supplier/vendor thoroughly. We routinely re-audit each other to guarantee maximum recoveries for all of our clients.

Areas we routinely work:

• Allowances

• Cash discounts

• Duplicate payments

• Freight

• Overpayments

• Price Protection

• Pricing variances

• Returned goods

• Routing errors

• Sales tax

• Statement errors

• Unclaimed / Escheatable property

• Volume rebates

Audit timeline:

Our first audit step is establishing working relationships with key people in your organization and acquiring the pertinent data the review process requires. Our typical audit plan follows (Note: Timeline in italics):

Obtain client’s raw data and convert to our working format. <30 - 60 days prior to start of audit>

Run specialized reports to pinpoint possible areas of recovery: <10 - 20 days prior to start of audit>

· Overpayment reports

· Duplicate payments reports

· Paid wrong vendor reports

· Cash discount reports

· Early payment reports

· Item history reports for pricing/pass-through costs

· Freight/shipping reports

· Debit balance reports

· Backorder reports

(Additional customized reports are generally developed once data has been reviewed)

Request and review contracts for compliance. <weeks 1 – 4 >

Audit for rebates – volume, pricing, etc. < weeks 1 – 4 >

Review all invoices for pricing, terms, tax, freight/shipping, penalties, and discounts. <weeks 1 - 8>

Request and review supplier statements for credit recoveries. <weeks 1 – 4>

Produce customized management report and review with client at conclusion of audit. <approx. 45 days after audit completed>

Audit location:

We have found that best audit results are obtained when an audit is performed (or at least started) at the client’s site the first time. This allows us to better understand our client’s business and vendors. This also gives our first time clients the opportunity to learn more about us and the process and procedures we use.

Depending upon the type and complexity of an audit, we have also been successful in performing audits from our office in Richmond .

The audit can be conducted wherever our client prefers.

Your time:

Once our client has provided data files, direction and access to other files such invoice copies/images, assisted in identifying “sensitive” and “do not audit” vendors, there should be little involvement necessary from client’s staff. Any additional “human resource” time would be at our client’s discretion.

You do not have to be bothered with correspondence generated as a result of the recovery audit. All vendor correspondence is answered within one business day by the auditor familiar with the particular claim/debit. Each claim/debit form also includes a senior auditor’s name and telephone number in case there are any questions.

We use our unique ClaimsManagement^© program in which we enter all claims and potential claims. With this program, we are able to provide standard and “ad hock” reports at any time. We also track the status of claims through this program and the program also generates the customized claim/debit memos.

Our auditors follow a detailed audit procedure to ensure thorough, accurate, and legitimate claim findings. If required, all claims can be pre-approved before deduction.

Sales contact:

Mr. Michael Drayer

Business Development Manager

Richmond, VA

Tel: 804-288-0718 ext 222 (or toll free at 888-750-1937)

mdrayer@theprofitsource.com