What are internal controls, and why do they matter?
Internal controls are the policies, procedures, and systems an organization uses to keep financial information accurate, protect assets, support compliance, and run operations efficiently. Examples include approval workflows, segregation of duties, invoice matching, and system access rules. Well-tuned controls reduce risk while helping work move faster, with fewer delays and less waste.
What is an internal process and control review?
An internal process and control review is an independent assessment of whether your processes and controls are operating as intended. Revenew examines how work actually flows across supply chain, accounts payable, and EHS, then shows where controls are performing well and where they can be even better, with practical recommendations to act on.
What areas does a Revenew process and control review cover?
Revenew reviews supply chain, accounts payable, and environment, health, and safety (EHS) processes. Its team includes specialists in supply chain reviews, cost containment, contracts, and risk mitigation, paired with technology that surfaces answers quickly. Issues are addressed at the source so improvements last.
How often should internal controls be reviewed?
Most organizations review key controls at least annually, and again after significant change, such as an ERP upgrade, a merger or acquisition, a move to outsourced accounts payable, or rapid growth. People, vendors, and technology change over time, and even the best-designed controls can lose their edge, so a periodic independent review keeps them aligned with how the business runs today.
What are examples of accounts payable internal controls?
Core accounts payable controls include segregation of duties, so no single person can create a vendor, approve an invoice, and release a payment; three-way matching of purchase orders, receiving records, and invoices; approval thresholds enforced in the system; clean vendor master data, since duplicate vendor records are a leading cause of duplicate payments; and regular vendor statement reconciliation to surface unapplied credits and missed rebates. Revenew's gainIQ Prevent reinforces these controls before payment and has helped a healthcare organization prevent $4.8M in duplicate and erroneous payments.
How does technology strengthen internal controls?
Technology lets controls run continuously instead of only at period end. Revenew's gainIQ Prevent, proven across 275,000+ hours in the field, analyzes pending and historical payments, flags potential overpayments such as duplicate payments before payment is made, tracks root causes on a dashboard, and monitors the vendor master file in real time. A global medical-device manufacturer has realized $185M in cumulative savings with it. Revenew handles setup and integration.
How is a process and control review different from a Capabilities Assessment?
A process and control review asks whether specific processes and controls work as intended, and how to strengthen them. A Capabilities Assessment is broader: it examines the people, processes, and technology behind a function, such as contract lifecycle management, and delivers a best-practice roadmap. A controls review fits a specific process area; a capabilities assessment fits wider operational change.
Why work with an outside firm on a process and control review?
An outside review brings an independent view and specialized expertise without adding to your team's workload. Revenew brings 25+ years of audit results and experience and is SOC 2 Type 2 certified. For a major electric utility, Revenew's real-time review produced a $272.9M net reduction in contractor storm invoices, with greater than 99% regulatory-audit accuracy and an ROI of about 4,800%.
