How does a traditional recovery audit work?
A recovery audit firm takes AP data, and sometimes statements and contracts, analyzes it over 3–6 months, files claims, and typically charges 15–25% of recovered dollars (SSON R&A/Xelix, 2026). The contingency structure limits the customer's financial risk because fees depend on results. The capacity constraint is human review, so firms tend to focus on the highest-spend vendors, transactions, and known error patterns. Coverage in practice is roughly the top 20% of transactions (SSON R&A/Xelix, 2026).
The comparison with recovery audit firms covers when that model is still the right choice. The lookback audit FAQ explains our read-only approach.
What does a recovery audit find?
Common findings include duplicate and near-duplicate payments, credit notes issued but never applied, invoice prices that drifted from contracted terms, tax and currency errors, supplier-statement differences, and customer deductions that were written off without validation. Manual statement reconciliation usually covers the top 10–15% of suppliers, leaving the rest unreviewed (SSON/Xelix, 2026). The guide to near-duplicate payment detection explains one of the most common patterns.
Why does the classic model leave money behind?
- Sampling misses the long tail. Errors do not occur only among the largest vendors. Sampling is a response to limited review capacity, not evidence that the remaining transactions are safe.
- Annual cadence misses dispute windows. Disputes filed within 30 days win 40–60% of the time; after 60 days, the rate falls below 20% (CRF Research). A valid finding can arrive too late to recover.
- The learning leaves with the engagement. The audit closes, but the process conditions that caused the errors remain.
What changes with an AI recovery audit?
The main changes are coverage, speed, and what happens after the audit. Agents can read the full scoped transaction population and the documents behind it: invoice PDFs against delivery notes, deductions against promotion agreements, and statements against the ledger. Findings arrive with supporting evidence, so the finance team can validate and act without starting the investigation again.
In one cloudsquid customer deployment, agents audited 100% of one year's AP transactions in under two hours. In another cloudsquid customer result, a construction wholesaler's first audit surfaced $730K in errors and reduced manual reconciliation effort by 90%. Those are customer outcomes, not industry benchmarks.
The useful checks can then run before payment or write-off. The audit becomes a practical route from historical recovery to continuous control. See how this applies to accounts payable.
What does it cost to find out?
The audit is read-only and works from exports, so it does not require an ERP integration or changes to production. Pricing depends on the scope and is defined before the audit. If no recoverable leakage is found, the output is a documented result rather than a software rollout.