Frequently Asked Questions
What is a contract compliance review?
Broadly, a contract compliance review is an analysis of all
or a portion of a company’s payment transaction history. It includes evaluating
whether the parties to a contract are abiding by their contractual obligations,
whether the contracting process is working as intended, and whether an arms-length
business relationship exists.
Most often, this type of review involves validating whether
invoices submitted for payment are properly supported and comply with contract
or rate schedule terms. Depending on the scope of the project, the review is
generally conducted in the vendor’s or your joint venture partner’s office.
AMS-PAR has the experience needed to efficiently identify compliance errors,
help recover overpayments, and evaluate the appropriateness of the party’s business
relationship.
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Why should I conduct a compliance review?
Non-payroll obligations are often the most significant expenditures a company makes. Conducting contract compliance reviews should be a component of a company’s risk management process. At AMS-PAR, our compliance reviews are usually self-funding and are done without interrupting your staff’s normal routine. This means that we typically recover significantly more dollars from overpayments than we charge to provide the service.
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My staff reviews invoices prior to making payment. Why
should I pay AMS-PAR to conduct a compliance review?
Unfortunately, a thorough analysis of increasingly complex
contracts and summarized invoices cannot always be done in your office. To ensure
invoices are prepared accurately, often it is necessary to have access to equipment
registers, third party purchase detail, payroll records, and other source data.
AMS-PAR staff has the appropriate experience to thoroughly analyze these supporting
documents to provide a higher level of assurance that you deserve.
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What benefits should I expect to receive from an AMS-PAR review?
An AMS-PAR compliance review will produce two primary benefits.
First, your company will recover overpayments resulting from errors and contract
misinterpretations. Second, and equally important, you will receive a root-cause
analysis of the contracting processes and procedures that caused the overpayments.
Ensuring these gaps are addressed will improve your bottom line for years to
come. BACK TO TOP
How much effort does this take on my part? Do I have the
time and resources?
AMS-PAR recognizes that your staff is busy and has other
job responsibilities. We take this very seriously, and our reviews are designed
to minimize client time requirements. Once the engagement objectives are established
and the detailed payment data and relevant contracts are obtained, AMS-PAR will
work independently with minimal disruption to your staff. BACK TO TOP
How much does it cost to have a comprehensive review done?
The fees charged for an AMS-PAR review are established through
a negotiation with each client. Factors that affect cost include the type of
review, the scope, the amount expended, the type of contract, and the period
of time proposed to be examined. AMS-PAR is willing to offer review services
on either a fee-for-service basis or on a contingency arrangement where AMS-PAR
is paid a percentage of the overpayments actually recovered.
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What can I expect from the report? What does the report tell me?
Our reports serve a dual purpose. They provide management insight into existing contracting and payment processes and recommendations for strengthening those processes. The report also clearly explains the specific errors noted during the review and includes sufficient detail needed to facilitate timely collection. We take great care to prepare a meaningful report for our clients.
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What time period can be reviewed?
The time period to be reviewed is often contractually dictated or prescribed by law. AMS-PAR can help you determine the amount of historical data that can be reviewed. BACK TO TOP
How long does the process take?
AMS-PAR designs each review to ensure our client’s objectives
are met. Generally, the team will spend two to six weeks on-site. The actual
time, however, is dictated by the scope of the engagement and in-field results. BACK TO TOP
How will a review affect our relationship with our vendors?
Reviewing commercial relationships is a common business practice.
Vendors value their relationship with your firm and work hard to ensure they
comply with their contractual obligations. We find that vendors quickly resolve
errant billings. AMS-PAR staff can assist in your collection efforts. BACK TO TOP
How is an AMS-PAR review different from other reviews?
All potential service providers offer widely differing levels of scope and review intensity. At AMS-PAR we offer our clients a higher level of assurance through proper planning, execution, and reporting. We believe that the client is best served by customizing our review to meet its unique and distinct needs.
Our staff will work with you to understand your objectives
and business practices. Once the objectives are defined, we will carefully select
a team with the right skill set from our resource pool and design a testing approach
to ensure your objectives are met. The concerns identified during the engagement
will be well documented and the report will clearly describe engagement results
and offer recommendations for improving processes and minimizing future errors. BACK TO TOP |
