Corbel Conservation Recover A Duplicated Payment of £11,000

Overview

Liberata helped identify and recover a duplicate payment of over £11,000 for Corbel Conservation. Corbel are award winning architects, craftsmen and craftswomen who transform ideas into reality.

They specialise in the repair and creative adaption of a wide range of historic and modern buildings. Whether that’s a small contemporary house extension, grand design, or sensitive repair and restoration of a historic or listed property, they use their creative skills, collaborative approach, cost control knowledge and 20+ years’ experience to provide a streamlined and hassle-free process.

The Challenge

Corbel selected Liberata’s Duplicate Payment Recovery Service as a no-risk way to identify and recover any erroneous payments, and gain insight into improvements that could be made to their systems, processes and policies.

During the project, a significant duplicate payment of over £11,000 was identified, but the recovery proved far from straightforward.

The Solution

In consultation with Corbel, the project was scoped to review 4 years’ worth of purchase ledger data, going back to 2017. The data extract was prepared, verified and imported into our state-of-the-art Finance Cloud system, which uses sophisticated Machine Learning algorithms to examine the data and identify duplicate payments.

A small number of duplicate payments were identified, with the most significant being a payment of over £11,000, which was the result of a double-posting error. We validated the finding with Corbel and contacted the supplier with evidence and they acknowledged that a duplicate payment had been made.

However, the supplier then requested further time to investigate, which became a protracted exercise due to their accountant being busy with other matters. Queries were also raised by the supplier regarding other outstanding invoices, CIS deductions and previous payments made. Sticking to a disciplined process of regular contact, including escalations to our Senior Finance Manager, the Liberata team pushed to resolve the matter.

Eventually, after a period of no response, we sent a formal letter advising that further action would be taken if the matter was not satisfactorily resolved within seven days. The result was an immediate prioritisation of the matter by the supplier and all outstanding details were provided in the form of a supplier statement.

The Outcome

After clarifying the outstanding queries and obtaining copies of missing invoices for Corbel, we obtained confirmation that the supplier would refund the original overpayment as soon as possible.

The supplier confirmed that the refund was processed and the recovery was completed, proving the importance of a strong process and persistence in maximising recovery.

“We really appreciated the Liberata team’s expertise and persistence on this project. They communicated to us clearly throughout and delivered a great result. We were not aware of the large duplicate payment until Liberata found it and, as any fees payable are totally contingent on recovered funds, I would highly recommend this service to other firms.”
Eve Warren, Business Manager, Corbel

You can read the full case study by clicking here. Alternatively,  if you would like to learn more about our Duplicate Payment Review Service, click here.

See how Liberata can help your organisation.

Book A Demo
As a Council we are focused on ensuring that the services delivered are both sustainable and of the highest quality. We are delighted to be working with Liberata to help deliver these services on behalf of our residents and businesses. Liberata stood out with its ability to drive transformational change and improve customer access and digital services.
Richard Baker
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Following a formal process and tender notice, Liberata stood out with its ability to transform our services and improve customer access and digital services. Liberata has demonstrated it can achieve high collection rates across business rates and Council Tax services and benefits by improving processing times. We look forward to working with Liberata to help transform these services for our residents and ensuring we are providing the appropriate levels of support to the most vulnerable in our area.
A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council
Swindon Borough Council
Eastleigh Borough Council has worked with Liberata for a number of years who undertake the council's empty home reviews, and I must say, their service exceeded all expectations. From start to finish, they demonstrated professionalism, efficiency, and a genuine commitment to addressing this critical issue in our community. Thanks to Liberata, the council has been able to maximise our empty home bonus year on year. This positive impact on our community cannot be overstated.
Kerrie Thomas
Eastleigh Borough Council
The RV Finder service from Liberata has really helped us ensure that our data is as accurate as possible and, when the VOA has processed the outstanding cases, I fully expect to see more than £1,000,000 of additional RV. The “risk and reward” model works well and the Council only has to pay for their success and the service is something that we will use on a regular basis.
Steve King
Leicester City Council
logo