Accounting Services Outsourcing Case Study – Large Clothing Retailer

Accounting Services Outsourcing Case Study

Background

• A large clothing retailer with operations in the US and Canada that processes an average of over 6,500 AP invoices per month, 8,300 cash applications, 16,000 credit card transactions per month, among other activities related to cash and inventory reconciliations
• Goal was to improve process efficiency, quality, and timeliness by moving from their in-house processes to a fully outsourced service model

Issues

• Lack of transaction visibility, cumbersome exception resolution, a lack of segregation of duties and a high invoice matching tolerance
• Inconsistencies across personnel in how items were processed & lack of real-time visibility
• Needed to significantly reduce operational cost

Solution

• Reengineered and standardized AP, AR, and reconciliations processes utilizing best practices to improve efficiency, visibility and controls; also implemented continuous process improvements
• IQ Backoffice provided 24/7 processing as needed and ensured that all geographical entities are covered through a multi-location operations strategy
• IQ performed same-day processing as needed and provided real-time visibility into each transaction
• IQ significantly reduced the client’s current operational cost over 60% annually; some processes saved over 75%