Recurring expense audit

Purpose

Test whether recurring supplier costs are correctly recorded, supported, owned, and still needed. The audit converts repeated postings and contractual commitments into a reconciled exception list with period impact and evidence for each proposed review.

Scope

Cover subscription and service expenses, recurring invoices, accruals, purchase orders, contract terms, renewals, cost centres, owners, payment cadence, price changes, duplicate vendors, unused services, and missing invoices. Reconcile a stated period and compare prior periods where available. Excluded: cancelling a service, changing the ledger, approving an accrual, negotiating with suppliers, or declaring fraud without evidence.

Data basis

• General-ledger expense lines: document ID, posting date, supplier, account, cost centre, amount, currency, tax, description, and PO or invoice reference.
• Recurring-invoice register: cadence, expected amount, next invoice date, owner, contract ID, and status.
• Contracts, order forms, POs, invoices, accrual schedule, supplier master, budget, and prior audit findings.
• Close policy, materiality threshold, FX rule, and optional audit_period input.

Result

Deliver a findings sheet with one row per supplier or recurring stream: expected cadence, posted amount, variance, contract evidence, renewal date, owner, exception type, period impact, materiality, citation, and recommended disposition. Write an audit memo with reconciliations, top exceptions, recurring control gaps, and open evidence.

Quality criteria

• Ledger totals reconcile to the selected period, account scope, and currency treatment.
• Recurrence is supported by at least two dated postings, an invoice schedule, or a contract clause; one-off spend is not labelled recurring without evidence.
• Variances use the defined tolerance and show the formula and comparison period.
• Duplicate, missing-accrual, expired-contract, price-change, and unused-service findings cite rows or clauses.
• Every finding has a source citation and an impact amount or an explicit “not quantifiable.”

Instructions

Freeze the period and account population before grouping suppliers. Normalize supplier aliases only with a documented key and preserve the original name. Separate cash posting from service period when accrual data supports that distinction. Apply the supplied materiality and variance rules consistently; do not invent a threshold. Treat absent invoice evidence as an evidence gap, not proof that the cost is invalid. Keep recommendations conditional on the contract, owner, and service-use evidence.

Adapt before use

• Map ledger, invoice, PO, contract, supplier, accrual, budget, and cost-centre columns.
• Define period boundaries, currency conversion, recurrence evidence, variance tolerance, and materiality.
• Add the close policy, supplier alias table, renewal ownership rules, and prior findings.