Dairy Crest is a leading UK supplier of value-added cheddar, with significant sales in liquid milk and dairy ingredients. The document outlines an internal audit review of accounts payable, emphasizing the importance of data analysis to identify duplicate payments and improve supplier management. It suggests in-house solutions for auditing and highlights the need for better understanding and quality of supplier data.

1. Duplicate Payments
Accept they happen,
Use IDEA to find them
Andrew Cushion
Group Internal Audit
Dairy Crest

2. DAIRY CREST
Company Profile
Cheese
• Dairy Crest is the leading
supplier of value-added
cheddar in the UK
• We sell 120,000 tonnes of
cheese per year in the UK
Household
• Supply over 600m litres of
milk per year
• Doorstep reach covers the
whole of the South of
England, serving 1.8m
homes a day
Liquid Products
• Dairy Crest has a 32%
share of all liquid milk sales
into UK multiples, making
us a strong No. 2 in this
market
Ingredients
• We are the largest UK Dairy
ingredients business and a
No1 exporter
Spreads
• Production of Packet Butter
has increased by over 400%
• Our key brand Clover is the
clear market leader in this
sector
Fresh Dairy Products
• Dairy Crest continue to hold
a leadership position in the
Fresh Dairy Products market
• We continue to build on the
successes of our brands Frijj
and Yoplait

3. Accounts Payable Review – Choices ?
External
• No resource or expertise
in-house
• Better sales technique (No
win, no fee..)
• Specialist programmes
established by “Experts”
• Politically better if report of
errors provided by a
“Consultant”
• Access to data
Internal
• Can be done in-house!
• IDEA is the solution
• Can be part of people’s
development
• Enables better
understanding of
Accounts Payable
function
• Easier to find solutions,
fixes

4. Accounts Payable Review – Steps
1. Obtain the data, (AP file and Supplier masterfile)
2. Import
3. Reconcile and validate data where possible
• Link AP file to Supplier Masterfile to identify Supplier
• Obtain site from Internal Invoice ref
4. Perform testing
• Same Supplier Invoice No.,date and amount
• Same Supplier Invoice No. and amount
• Same Amount and date ( Good Luck……..)
5. Identify and clear “corrected” entries
6. Review Supplier Masterfile
7. Extract reports for further investigation and reporting
8. Celebrate “unexpected income”

5. Accounts Payable Review – Same Inv No, Date & Amt

6. Accounts Payable Review – Same Inv No. & Amt

7. Accounts Payable review
Review of Supplier masterfile & Invoices processed and paid
• 12,000 Suppliers on System
• A number of suppliers apparently set up more than once
• Quality of data ………..room for improvement
• 8,446 used in previous year
• 1,400 used only once
• 3,500 used 5 times or less
• 1,600 with spend less than £500 in previous year

8. Accounts Payable review
Lessons learnt
• Need to understand AP systems, processes and
controls
• Must set “economic” levels to review
• “Areas for improvement” should be addressed ASAP
• Establish macros or better still…IDEA User Group

9. Accounts Payable review
What else can you do?
• Identify “duplicated” suppliers
• Identify key suppliers to the business
• Link AP with GL, identifying expenditure by category by
supplier, opportunities for rationalisation
• Carry out VAT testing