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RoleProcureAudit for Compliance Officers | Procurement Oversight
Checking work you cannot watch transaction by transaction
You are accountable for how hundreds of purchases were handled and you can realistically examine a handful. What matters is whether the rules applied themselves and whether the exceptions are visible without you going looking.
Three signals worth more than sampling
Individual transactions rarely tell you much. Patterns across them tell you a great deal.
Three signals worth more than sampling
Individual transactions rarely tell you much. Patterns across them tell you a great deal.
- Exceptions reportable separately from routine activity
- Trend visible across periods
- Reason recorded at the time on each one
One exception is a decision somebody made. Exceptions rising steadily over two quarters is a signal that a threshold no longer matches how people actually buy.
- Exceptions reportable separately from routine activity
- Trend visible across periods
- Reason recorded at the time on each one
- A short review list rather than the whole population
Repeat purchases from the same requester sitting just under a limit is the pattern most worth watching, and it is invisible without looking across transactions.
- Repeat activity from one requester visible
- Values clustering below a limit surfaced
- Usually a threshold problem rather than a person problem
- Fixable by adjusting the rule
Documents uploaded after an approval, or phases cleared unusually fast, are not proof of anything, but they are worth a look and the timeline makes them visible.
- Activity written as work happens, not afterwards
- Entries not editable after the fact
- Sequence provable rather than asserted
- Unusual timing visible without an investigation
How assurance is usually attempted
Most compliance functions do all of this. The difficulty is that none of it scales.
Sampling by hand
Opening a proportion of transactions to check them, which finds problems by chance and leaves the rest unexamined.
Exceptions surfaced
Everything that deviated is flagged, so your attention covers the unusual completely rather than the ordinary partially.
Applied when remembered
Whether an award needed the extra approval depends on somebody recognising the value, which is exactly what fails under pressure.
Applied by value
The condition sits in the template and fires on the number, so the same value always produces the same route.
Absorbed into normal activity
An exception approved by email looks like every other approval afterwards, so the population you would want to review cannot be identified.
Recorded as exceptions
Each carries a reason written at the time and is reportable separately from routine activity.
A fortnight
Collecting a sample means asking people to find things, and the delay itself signals how well the record was kept.
Minutes
Filter, export, documents attached, without involving anybody else's inbox.
Consistency beats inspection
Reviewing every transaction is impossible. What you can do is make sure the rules ran on all of them and that anything unusual is visible without being searched for.
Consistency beats inspection
Reviewing every transaction is impossible. What you can do is make sure the rules ran on all of them and that anything unusual is visible without being searched for.
- Rules fire on the number, not on judgement
- Your review population is short and complete
- Evidence takes minutes
Rules fire on the number, not on judgement
A threshold depending on somebody recognising a purchase as significant is a threshold that fails in a busy quarter. Firing on award value removes that variable entirely.
Your review population is short and complete
Exceptions recorded as exceptions and reportable separately means you look at the handful that are unusual rather than sampling the whole month.
Evidence takes minutes
Filter the population, export the sample, and the supporting documents arrive attached rather than being requested from colleagues.
Where assurance is won or lost
An external review is announced
Evidence produced by filter rather than by disrupting the team for a fortnight.
Learn moreQuarterly assurance
Reviewing the exception population rather than sampling the whole quarter.
Learn moreA threshold stops matching behaviour
Visible as purchases clustering below it rather than discovered years later.
Learn moreA team member changes role
Access changes with the role rather than accumulating across positions.
Learn moreAn approval is challenged
Approver, timestamp and the exact version approved all sit on the record.
Learn moreExceptions start rising
Visible as a trend across periods rather than as a series of unconnected decisions.
Learn moreQuestions from compliance officers
How do I get assurance across hundreds of purchases?
How are exceptions handled?
Can I see patterns rather than individual cases?
What evidence can I produce for an external review?
Does the workspace make the judgement for us?
Can activity entries be altered afterwards?
How do I know a rule is actually being applied?
Other sectors and roles worth reading
Internal audit
Sampling a population and getting the support without a collection exercise.
Learn more
Contracts managers
The person who has to produce the file, usually at short notice.
Learn more
Finance leaders
Award against funded amounts, and what has actually been committed.
Learn moreBring a month of purchases
We will show which would have been exceptions and what your review population would actually look like.
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