The Savvy Supplier Podcast
Finally, a Podcast for all Retail Suppliers! Our goal is very practical: We will save you Time & Money. Boyd Evert will give you actionable expert advice so that you can make Wiser Decisions and get Fewer Deductions.
The Savvy Supplier Podcast
How to Build an Audit-Ready Finance Team
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Keywords
finance teams, audit-ready, deductions management, accounting pitfalls, tariffs, internal alignment, documentation, growth strategies, risk management, supplier insights
Summary
In this episode of The Savvy Supplier, Al & Boyd talk with Kevin Stewart from Crowe, a Global Accounting Firm, about the importance of building audit-ready finance teams, managing deductions effectively, and navigating the complexities of tariffs. They explore common accounting pitfalls, the significance of internal alignment, and the necessity of proper documentation. The conversation highlights the need for finance teams to be proactive in risk management and to adapt to market changes while maintaining a stable and structured approach to accounting processes.
Takeaways
- Managing your own function effectively is key to handling deductions.
- Understanding costs is crucial to avoid financial pitfalls.
- CFOs dislike surprises; clarity in financial processes is essential.
- Communication between finance and sales teams is vital for success.
- Being audit-ready means being prepared for change and uncertainty.
- Documentation is often overlooked but is critical for financial integrity.
- Growth requires a shift in finance team structure and processes.
- Internal alignment can prevent costly mistakes in pricing and deductions.
- Proactive risk management is essential for finance teams.
- Investing in proper systems can save significant costs in the long run.
Titles
- Building Audit-Ready Finance Teams
- Mastering Deductions Management
Sound Bites
- "Everyone hates surprises, especially CFOs."
- "We should be the lighthouse in the ocean."
- "I see concern, not panic, in the market."
Chapters
00:00
Building Audit-Ready Finance Teams
01:39
Managing Deductions Effectively
03:25
Common Accounting Pitfalls
04:48
Navigating Tariffs and Their Impact
06:36
Internal Team Alignment
12:28
Trends in Deductions Management
14:35
Addressing Concerns in the Market
15:39
Importance of Documentation
17:10
Transitioning Companies and Growth Challenges
22:18
Driving Culture in Finance Teams
25:01
The Role of CFOs in Risk Management
Welcome to “The Savvy Supplier,” your go-to podcast for navigating the ever-changing landscape of retail supply! Join us as we dive into expert insights and actionable tips to help retail suppliers save time and money. From tackling inflation to optimizing operations, we’ve got you covered. Tune in every week for strategies that empower you to thrive in a competitive market. Don't miss out—subscribe now and become a savvy supplier! 💡
www.HRG-audit.com
www.SavvySupplierPodcast.com
Need help with managing Deductions and implementing Supplier Best Practices? Help is here!
Email: Boyd.Evert@HRG-audit.com
#RetailSupplierDeductions
#RetailSupplier
#Post-AuditClaims
#HRG
"Wiser Decisions, Fewer Deductions"
Al Frank (00:00)
How can you build audit-ready finance teams to protect you when invalid deductions come your way? A partner from a global accounting firm has advice for you. Next, on The Savvy Supplier.
Al Frank (00:15)
Welcome into the savvy supplier where we save you time and money. I'm Al Frank as always Boyd Evert the CEO of HRG is here and we're joined today by a great special guest. Kevin Stewart is partner at Crowe, one of the top accounting and consulting firms in the world, which is Very impressive. And Kevin, you have
wealth of knowledge about a lot of different things, including knowledge about Boyd Evert I'm sure. Maybe share a story or two as we go.
Kevin Stewart (00:43)
We will I've known Boyd for over 20 years at this point or close to 20 years at this point so a lot of good friendship a lot of good working knowledge and a lot of respect there on hopefully both accounts, but definitely me for him
Al Frank (00:54)
Boy, tell us a little bit about Kevin and what you've seen from him over the years.
Boyd Evert (00:58)
Yeah, Kevin's, we share a love for history to begin with.
traveled in the same circle of friends and we quickly found that we had a lot in common. think when we met, Kevin was at Walmart working there. so occasionally we would talk some shop things that I was seeing, you know, from HRG's perspective. And every once in a while we'd say, yeah, I know that person. So Walmart's a large company as everyone knows. So whenever somebody comes up on our shared radar, as it were, it was always made for interesting conversations.
Al Frank (01:30)
Sounds good. Well, Kevin, let's start with this. What would you say is the first step a finance team needs to take to begin managing deductions effectively?
Kevin Stewart (01:39)
It's a good question, but I would probably step back from that and I would say managing their own function effectively, right? And deductions is a piece of that. But a lot of it comes down to is managing your own shop, your processes, having good information. But when you boil it all down, it's about data, right? And so it's the costs that are coming in to make up your inventory. It's the selling price by which you're pricing it.
But all along the way, if you don't have the right processes and the order and the right people in place and the right talent, it becomes challenging. So it really is about getting your house in order and having the right structure and processes. So much of the work that I do with accounting and finance teams and companies that are in this, we'll call it growth phase or this change phase, and that could be getting into
a significant buyer like a Walmart or significant buyer like any other large retailer. But it's being ready for those changes and being ready to step into the big leagues, whatever that big league is, with your own processes. And so where we step in a lot, at least my team, is really specifically with accounting and finance teams and helping them map out where they are. So very clearly understanding and assessing. This is where we stand today. Not much different from how Harvest steps in, specific to deductions.
Here's where we are today. Here's where very good or benchmark type companies are. This is where we're heading. So how do we get from where we are today to where we need to be? it's really focused on processes and systems and people. And if you can do that, then really deductions is just a piece of that. And it's just a natural part of your DNA and managing your own business.
Al Frank (03:15)
That's excellent. What are some common accounting pitfalls or mistakes that you've seen along the way that kind of take a big toll on retail suppliers?
Kevin Stewart (03:25)
It's the lack of understanding of your real costs. so if, Boyd and were having this conversation a few days ago, and it's really related
gotten brought in a lot. A lot of times after a transaction or after an event, and clients are saying, our costs do not make sense to us, right? What we thought we had in margins, we don't actually have in margins, So we're not making as much money as we thought we could be or should be.
And so many times when we step in we see where there's data issues kind of flowing through, Or they're not capturing certain costs, whether it be tariffs or shipping or discounts or any number of things that can impact that specific cost or that standard costing. And so in that, what we found at times is companies think they're making a significant amount of money, or maybe they think their highest margin is on a certain product. But when you boil it all down at times.
not often, but at times they're actually losing money. So they're selling at a loss on those specific items. And it's because they haven't had the right disciplines or something's happened in the system that they weren't aware of or caught. And so it's going back in and helping them that adjust that. that could be just data flow. It could be some performance improvement issues. It could be some other things as well. But the big thing is really understanding where your costs are.
Al Frank (04:36)
Talk about tariffs right now, a very challenging time for accounting firms, trying to handle what to do about tariffs and accounting for that. Any advice you might have for retail suppliers?
Kevin Stewart (04:48)
We have experts on hand to manage that, that can go in and look at what those duties are coming in. They can look at what the duties should be and kind of assess that. But I think when you look at those types of issues, in the CFOs that I've worked for personally, and direct with it's everyone hates surprises.
Especially CFOs hate surprises maybe more than anybody else because it becomes about blocking and tackling. What did we miss? What risk did we not consider? And I believe with the tariffs specifically in the current administration and what they're doing, whether we agree with it or not, I think the struggle is the uncertainty of are they actually 10 % tariffs? Are they not? What are the goods on? What are the exceptions? What was the negotiation? So really, the advice would be
Kevin Stewart (05:29)
You have to roll with the flow because I think we're living in an age of uncertainty as it comes to the tariffs. But I think once they're announced, you have to start planning for when those shipments are going to be impacted. Is that three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now? And start baking in those considerations as you're negotiating with who you're selling to. Because it has to be a baked in cost. Somebody has to pay that tariff. And unfortunately, the end of day, it's going to be the consumer.
Boyd Evert (05:56)
Well, Kevin, think downstream of tariffs, right? So not just at that point, but communicating price increases, some things can go wrong in that. You don't notify your customer in time. but then they change.
In retailing anytime there's a price move there's always room for error And so maybe from a standpoint of accruals, maybe the accruals are a little larger than before I don't know What do you what do you think downstream of tariffs in other words from a cost structure total cost to serve?
what would you see from that standpoint? Not just understanding what duties do we need to pay, but how is that going to impact our portfolio of items that we're selling?
Kevin Stewart (06:36)
It's a good question that I don't know that there's a clear answer to at least for my perspective it's a little bit outside of my expertise. I'll admit that but it becomes where are you focusing what you're selling right because there may be a change of like that's not a pricing strategy that fits into what we want to do and so That leads to manufacturing do we manufacture it in this?
Boyd Evert (06:39)
Right.
Kevin Stewart (06:56)
country do we move that manufacturing and that's a big decision. That's a big decision beyond really just basic pricing. But when it comes to pricing itself and downstream, I think we scrapped tariffs here honestly, because it's completely outside. I'm talking theory as far my own opinion more so than expertise.
Boyd Evert (07:08)
Ha
when you're talking about systems and communication with your customers, implementing those price changes, knowing that they went into effect properly, Your invoices are good. Your allowances are mapped correctly, right? Because I think you and I have talked about this before where Walmart will ask for a warehouse allowance, but you end up sending them a volume allowance. Functionally, it's the same, but it's coded differently. So Walmart said, we didn't ask for
the volume allowance, thank you, but where's our warehouse allowance and then they deduct. And so maybe it's a matter of having some internal controls where you're auditing those, you know, when you're implementing price changes. I don't know if you can speak to that at all.
Kevin Stewart (07:54)
Well, I think it's speaking to and what we're getting into is more revenue recognition. Honestly, what comes when it comes down to it. And so within revenue recognition, are your contract terms and align that with how you're recognizing revenue. So on the other side of that, if there's room for negotiation post contract, it's just making sure that those are tracked appropriately within your systems.
Boyd Evert (07:59)
Okay.
Kevin Stewart (08:14)
So specifically, and as we have things like tariffs that are going on and how that impacts pricing, I'm an accountant, right? So I love straightforward things. So in negotiating, negotiating with a good faith, if you allow yourselves a lot of room for adjustment, there becomes complexity, which tariffs are complex to a degree, because they're just, there's uncertainty of how that's happening.
Boyd Evert (08:22)
Yeah, right.
Kevin Stewart (08:35)
But whatever you agree to with your retailer that you're selling into, it has to be trackable in an easy way. if it's a tariff, if it's fee that allows for adjusting a pricing, I would say whatever you set up and agree to, you need to be able to make it trackable relatively easily so that you yourself can go back in and say,
This is what we agree to. This is the pricing. This is the reason for the adjustment so that you can almost provide an audit trail when those third party auditors or the internal auditors or internal, you know, pricing teams or whoever is kind of doing that work to assess if the vendor is in alignment or you the vendor is in alignment. in the same way, whatever you agree to needs to be trackable. If it's not trackable, then you're completely at the discretion of whoever you're selling to. And that's just not a good negotiating position.
Boyd Evert (09:24)
Well, what about from the perspective of how
those teams, sales, finance, credit collections, they interact with each other because when you have something with like tariffs where there's a lot of conversation about who's going to pay for what and what if, you know, finance wants to keep things close to the vest sales, they want to be a good partner with the customer. And so you could easily see how there's some friction internally. Right. Have you seen some cases where there's not tight alignment or lack
of alignment.
Kevin Stewart (09:56)
probably more frequently than I like, know, but
Kevin Stewart (09:59)
the, the extent that a team can be a team, right? And I have a strategy understanding of this is how we're approaching this specific, you know, retailer in this specific,
instance. cause every retailer is a little bit of a different culture and
how they're approaching their own vendors. Some are aggressive, some are less aggressive, some are cooperative, but you really need to match up your approach to the culture of who you're selling into.
So if the finance team, the sales team, the whoever team, the buyers within that inventory kind of funneling in that the inventory supplies, if you're not on the same page, it's easy. I think about we talk about families a lot, you and I, Boyd, if mom and dad are not on the same page, then it's easy to, you know, allow Johnny to have ice cream at 10 o'clock at night because dad's distracted with other things when mom already said no. And so when you're divided,
it's much easier to
manipulated or to lose whatever you want to define as losing. So I would strongly suggest that teams are on the same page. And so as you're engaging, you're agreeing that this is the pricing difference or this is the pricing variance. This is what we're allowing. This is what we're granting. And it is making sure that that sales team is kind of in line. do in a lot of organizations are...
more sales focused and it makes sense because they're driving revenue. But there's risk associated with that. But as long as everyone is in alignment with the risk being taken, that there's not a rogue salesperson or a rogue finance person, that if you're on the same page, it does make life easier when you get into those audit sessions, know, six months past the cycle, a year past the cycle. If everyone is in alignment, then it's much easier to defend.
And even taking a step beyond that, if on the front end that there's some proactive things that you can be doing, this change happened communicating with who of your contact is at the client. Getting alignment, getting acknowledgement of that. So almost like a confirmation of, this was the change. I see the change. It's being applied in this specific way. I agree to it that you can hang your hat on the back end of it. That five minute effort may save.
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or the pain and suffering that comes from a post audit.
Al Frank (12:08)
Kevin, speaking of change, are there any trends right now that you're seeing? Boyd and I have talked in this podcast about an increase in online product returns and a large increase in excessive defectives. Are you seeing any trends or changes that change the way suppliers need to manage deductions?
Kevin Stewart (12:28)
No, it's if I think about an accounting and finance team, we should be the lighthouse, you know, on in the ocean. should not change dramatically. We should be the one that's centered because our world really isn't changing necessarily. Data is still flowing in. Deductions are still flowing in. Sales agreements are still flowing in or out. You know, the team is operating.
really the accounting and finance team should be stable and grounded very clearly in processes. And the other teams should see that, and so they should operate in that way. So as I'm engaging and interacting with CFOs, you led in with this as being audit ready, right? And I think really what that means is when I think about that, it's not being audit ready, it's being change ready.
That change could be you're doing so well, somebody wants to invest in you. Well, what do they need? They need data and information. How quickly can you turn that around? Does it take days? Does it take weeks? Does it take months? Do you have to hire somebody in like, like me, which I'd be happy to do. You bring somebody in like me to get clarity from your data so you can present it to somebody. But really at the end of the day, it is about having such a structure that we're providing the right information for decision makers.
the sales team, sales leadership, executive leadership to be able to make educated, qualified decisions based on the best data that we have. so whatever change is going on whether it be economic issues of what the current administration is making or future administrations are making, whether it be tax issues, whether it be a supplier goes bankrupt, or whether it be any number of things, the accounting and finance team should have their house in order.
more so than anyone else in an organization so that they can allow the best decisions to be made based on the information we have. And sometimes we have to be the bearer of bad news. You make this decision, this is the impact. You think you're going to make this much revenue, you're not because this is the accounting guidance. But really we're educating all along the way.
Al Frank (14:23)
Well, I can tell you're a voice of reason and very stable voice. Got a lot of experience, obviously. Are you as you consult with different suppliers, are you seeing a lot of panic out there?
Kevin Stewart (14:35)
I don't see panic. I see concern, right? It does come down. It seems we have a little bit more clarity in the last few months. But at the same time, I think it's just concern. And you see that in the market, then the companies are holding back on, you see it in private equity. I'll put it that way. Private equity doesn't seem to be transacting as much as maybe they would have three years ago. Different administration, different party.
in the administration, a different approach, but at least they had a bit of certainty of what was going on. So I think what happens is the lack of certainty the playing field or the rules of the game, it does make it hard to make decisions of, we'll call them life-changing decisions or business-changing decisions when you don't really know what the impact is going to be from a tax perspective or from a cost perspective. So I think it really boils down to
I think there's just legitimate concern of what's going to change two months from now, three months from now, six months from now, and how does that impact my own pricing, my own profitability. So why don't I hold back and see if that battlefield clears a little bit so I know what my next move needs to be.
Al Frank (15:38)
earlier, you talked a little bit about documentation, that paper trail that's needed. What do you see as kind of a missing element with that, that suppliers aren't always careful to keep those records to be able to dispute invalid deductions successfully?
Kevin Stewart (15:54)
I think what it comes down to is it's not deemed as important. what's important, I believe, to lot of companies is what we need to sell. And it is important. mean, if you're not selling, you're not generating revenue to come in. But at the same time, you have to protect on the backside of, all right, well, we sold. But truly, what is our free cash flow there that we can actually do something with? And so I don't believe it's intentional.
But what we see a lot is in my specific area and within Crowe we're seeing companies in transition. They're transitioning from a $25 million company to a $50 million company or a $100 million company to a $300 million company. we're dealing with companies that constantly in this transition and frankly, pretty significant growth mode. But when you grow from a $25 million business to a $100 million business, that's a tectonic shift. ⁓
in the way that you operate, you're moving from being a mom and pop ish type company, a successful mom and pop type company, to really an organization that you have to have different layers of support. have to have a different level of talent and expertise as it comes to finance function building teams that your CEO and your founder is becoming more of a leader and executive versus a doer themselves. So they're, really having to develop an organization.
that maybe they've never done before, They have a tremendous success, made more cash than they've ever seen before. But building that team to have the extended life and growth is not quite there. When I left Walmart, I went to work for Charming Charlie. And Charming Charlie at the time was a very successful growing retailer. They're relatively new. I think they're about seven years into it and they're, them an advanced startup. They had just gotten some private equity money that had grown to about
$500 million in revenues. But that growth pattern of really the last three to five years before I stepped into that was when they experienced the huge growth. It took them 21, 22 days to close the books each month, private company. was profitability. They were struggling a little bit on kind year to year growth. But as they were building new stores and new stores and new stores, it was masking that a little bit. Processes were not documented well in visiting with our auditor.
he shared it was the closest thing to an audible he'd seen in his career. And so the back office function truly was treated as a cost center versus as a partner. So when I stepped in and I had a boss I was supporting to stepped in shortly after I did about a month after I did. But our task was really about how do we standardize? How do we make this better? How do we partner? And the way that we did that, and there was a lot of talent across charming Charlie.
and that are now at different other retailers who are having very successful careers. But at the time, we'll call it the land of misfits a little bit as we're trying to come together and restore and build something for the future. For me, what that meant was I wanted to very clearly partner with the organization. Yeah, it's taken us 21 days to close, but the culture was the previous controller and the previous...
Assistant controller were all about you know every single penny and they were looking at so much detail That they weren't looking at the big picture to see you know a bus full of deductions could be flying through this gap Because they were so focused on the penny that they weren't again. They weren't seeing the big picture necessarily so when I stepped into it, And I was the assistant controller with that in some companies. That's a peon in this company There was some level of influence in that but I met
every single party that we interacted with within the accounting function. Our payables, we were struggling to pay the bills. We were getting frequent calls. We were being cut off. You know, our vendors weren't loving us, we'll say. know, whether we had to be a store level or whether it be our vendors themselves. So our processes were not documented well and it was impacting the business. truly, every day, nearly every day, I was getting a call as the assistant control over the AP function about, you know, we need this paid or
we're shutting off your electricity or whatever it is. Honestly, silly stuff because we didn't have our debits and credits and all in order. They just weren't in order. But in meeting with everyone within the within the function that I consider the client of the accounting team, you know, and building that relationship and building collaboration, you know, after doing that for three weeks, we came back and it's like, all right, here's how we're going to work. Here's how the team is going to work. Here's how the team is going to engage with you.
Here's the responsibilities of the team. then separately, here's how we're closing the books. And I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, this is how we're closing the books. I'm reaching out to you three days before the end of the month. This is your role, this is the expectations. If you don't have it in, we'll get it in next month. And so this is how we're gonna operate. And so really, even within a month, we went from 21 days to five days. And then it went from five days to three days. And then it stayed within that three days to five day window.
from, a distant execution reporting up to the CFO and having everything done. So I share that story a little bit because it was a 500 million. It was a retailer, right? It was, I thought they were a good guy at the time, right? But the good guy of retailer, we're selling, we're selling to our market, doing whatever. But to me, what that showed me and what that has led to how I consult and advise my clients now, it's making a choice, right? We're going to do things different. I understand every company is a little bit different.
every culture is a little bit different. But from what I could control, I was changing the culture of my team and how we were supporting the organization. And we were going to be that lighthouse, that light tower in a land of uncertainty and chaos for the rest of the organization. And we built respect. the rest of the organization began to have more respect for us. They became a respected partner.
our auditors had a little bit of a better life. You know, we made that engagement, not a horrible engagement for their team. It wasn't perfect by any means, but in a period of, in about 14 months
it went from absolute chaos, unpaid bills, un-reconciled accounts, closing the books in 21 days to a systematic closing the books in three to five days, having good information, having good reports, not everyone hating life and it actually being a decent job. So all that to be shared is,
is accounting and finance team can drive the culture of accountability, discipline and responsibility. And I believe that's Critical. right? And if a CFO is out there and is a struggling or if they're concerned or whatever else, I believe there is value. There's true respect for somebody raising their hand is like, we need more. We need to invest here. We need some short-term help. You know, our talent level is...
good, but where we were and where we are now is very different. How we build a system and going back to Charming Charlie, at the time the desire was to eventually going public considering that didn't exactly work out. when I was there, was having, and I've shared this many times, it was like I was looking in the past to repair all the sins of the past. I was trying to stabilize today to make sure that we're closing our books and getting everything done right. And then separately, I'm just looking out to the future and envisioning
What do we need to be the organization we need to be to be an IPO? And at the time we had 20 people within, you know, AP, payroll, accounting, and some cash stuff. But I didn't believe we needed 40 people or 60 people to be a billion dollar organization, accounting and finance team. We just had to have the right processes and procedures and talent in place to be able to support a growing, fast, you know, internationally expanding organization.
And so as I'm advising clients today, I have that experience in mind. have that stress in mind. I had a huge amount of stress. My, my blood pressure was a little high. and so, but I think about that often and the pressure I was feeling in that specific moment, the fear for my job, the fear for my team wanting to build something to, be proud of. And so as I'm advising now, I'm truly thinking in that moment.
And so again, whether it's a $25 million organization, 500 million or a billion plus, the playbook is the same, Getting your team in order, looking to the future, building what you need. And sometimes that requires a little bit of support of me, know, was towards a crow and that could be performance improvement work of really driving. How do we do get better inventory management? How do we get better terms? How do we get better profitability? How do we close the books faster? How do we do it with less people?
That's where we step in is that in those moments of it just seems like all is lost. And so the sell on that really is the CFO and the controller's responsibility is to assess the risk. They're sitting in a position where they can see a lot of things across the company and they should be seeing risks as it relates to deductions. They should be seeing risks that it relates to the pricing strategy. They should be seeing risks as it relates to tariffs. And if they're not, then maybe they're too busy.
Right. And maybe they need to step back. They need a little bit of assistance. They need a steroid injection of some accounting advisory of a firm like Crowe to come in and really get them, you know, two months, two months of work and assessment and cleanup and partnering side by side with them may get them to the point of being free them up enough to truly serve in the role that they need to serve in, which is about risk management versus just debits and credits. Debits and credits aren't hard. It's just booking entries. Right. But it's based on the data that you have.
the systems that you have with the people that you have. And if any one of those things is off, it is so much more to fix something in the future than it is to get it right now. That $100,000 you may spend today to get it right could be a million dollars three years from now to go back in and unravel the spaghetti mess of data and crap to then fix and make it right.
Boyd Evert (25:23)
just to piggyback on what Kevin's saying on the supplier side, you're just talking about the importance of having good systems and processes. One of our clients was a spinoff of a larger supplier. And when those typically happen, and Kevin, I've talked about this before, you don't get the A team, right? They're getting rid of middle management people that they don't want.
And I remember going to
which was about a thousand miles away from where the main office was, where you had the sales team, right? So you have the credit collections team out in a different city. And I remember going there and we're trying to perform an audit. And we discovered that they didn't implement cash application for SAP because they didn't trust it. And so we dug into it. They were applying
Boyd Evert (26:13)
deductionsthat were repaid against unpaid invoices. Yeah, so, so Kevin, I you can appreciate how wild that is, right? That was the Wild West, right? And after a while, my team just got, you know, could we fire this client? That was because things we didn't know which way was up, So anyway, there's so it happens on both sides.
Boyd Evert (26:35)
and some of the stuff that's going on out there, it's incredible. And that particular company was owned by a VC. And I think they probably were shuddering once they started to realize what they got.
Kevin Stewart (26:48)
Yeah, and with systems, mean, it is challenging when, you know, as a charming Charlie, it was, you know, we had an oral implementation, but There wasn't a match of the application of wire payments to way to match that into, you know, the specific invoices, which was one of the immediate issues that we had to remediate my first three months there. That simple cash application should be simple. But when you're not
putting a system in right or using it to its full capability, it creates so many manual processes which creates so much opportunity for error. Working with another company, right, there was a system update. Job A was supposed to run before Job B, but when the system update ran, it actually conversed those and Job B was running before Job A, which was impacting the value of the inventory that was going through and it was kind of a cross-stock thing where there should be no margin added to it, there's no cost added to it.
But because of that update, those jobs got reversed. it was adding some complexity to it that shouldn't be there. But it took a solid two months of part-time work and digging in to really understand, this is what happened and this is when it happened. And then flipping that back and then it all kind of worked out, but it was not a cheap fix necessarily all because of a simple update that didn't get kind of processed correctly or validated correctly kind of at the end of it. So systems are great unless they're not utilized fully.
or don't trust them, or separately, there's something happens in that process that isn't validated.
Al Frank (28:06)
Well, Kevin, thank you so much. Just great advice. A lot of key insights for us to all chew on. Thank you so much for joining us.
Kevin Stewart (28:15)
Absolutely. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Al Frank (28:17)
Well, to wrap up things, I want to mention that right now, HRG is offering a free tariffs risk analysis to help suppliers with insights on these three things, identifying risk exposure, assessing financial impact of tariffs, and suggesting mitigation strategies. So to get your free tariffs risk analysis, contact HRG at HRG-audit.com. Just one more way that HRG can save you time and money, HRG, wiser decisions, fewer deductions. See you next time on the Savvy Supplier.