Are You Overpaying Suppliers Right Now?

We find Bettercosts for you! This is not about the lowest cost – we want to get the same or better service or product for you at a lower cost. It’s all about getting the best value for your buck!

We get to know your business and your concerns – after all, you are in the business. We then review your outgoings (and processes if applicable) and suggest potential ways to save money – by re-negotiating contracts, finding new suppliers or finding operational efficiencies within your business. If there are areas you do not want us to investigate, that’s fine, we can act on your instructions andonly look into the areas that concern you most.

We only get paid if we find savings! Therefore, the worst outcome is that we confirm that you are indeed getting the best deals and have the lowest possible outgoings - at no cost to you (unless you are looking at process improvements)!

We also know that being a small or medium sized business, most people are too busy running the business, getting orders, processing invoices, managing people and getting the job done, to worryabout all the costs and outgoings – that’s where we step in and do that review for you.

You may have staff on board, but do they know what to look for? Are they too embedded in the manual workarounds to see a different path? Are they simply too busy and do not have time to do the review.

Sometimes, accounting staff do not have the commercial experience to review contracts and identify areas for cost savings.

If your accounting staff are contracted, their costs per hour may be significant as they concentrate on your accounting requirements and again, they may not have the commercial experience required.

Step 1 is to get an NDA signed so that all interests are secured
Step 2 is to discuss where you think there might be cost or efficiency savings and what your concerns are
Step 3 is for us to get to know your business better
Step 4 is to review your accounts and supplier contracts to identify areas that could provide savings
Step 5 is to sign the contract to ensure savings are locked in
Step 6 is to confirm new contracts / suppliers are in place and the expected savings are being achieved

Time is money as they say. Companies send staff on training courses to improve work-flows, but the training is not directly related to their job or tasks and is forgotten when they return to the office, orthey simply do not have time or experience to change your current processes

We review processes and sit with your staff to enact changes and train them on the go, doing the job that they do, improving things as they work, whilst also updating procedures at the same time. The time savings free up staff to do more value-added tasks. This is on a consultancy basis (pay for timeworked), so whilst this may have a higher initial cost, the long-term savings can be considerable.

For pure savings in outgoings, we charge 50% of the savings achieved. For example, if your mobilephone costs are $200 per month ($2,400 per year), and we find a contract with the same (or betterbenefits) for $150 per month ($1,800 per year), then the saving is $50 per month ($600 per year). The charge for this would be 50% of the $600 saving, so $300

For efficiency savings, this involves more upfront investigations into processes – be it manufacturing or desk based such as spreadsheets. There is an upfront fee of $1,000 to scope the requirements and then potentially a cost per hour depending on the project. Again, there is a 50% fee based on the savings achieved. For example, if we improve your process for reconciling Super payments from 2 days a fortnight to 1 day a fortnight, then the savings are the wages for the 1 day a fortnight, or 26 days a year – our fee would be a one-off fee of 13 days wages for the efficiency savings provided

All fees are one-off and not recurring, based on the annual savings.

Note that we may use 3 rd party brokers for some costs such as (but not limited to) energy providers. We do this as these brokers have the systems and knowledge to better monitor your usage of gas or electricity and confirm the savings achieved in these very specialized areas.

In these cases, we would be paid a smaller commission (about 1-3% of your bill) for the introduction of your firm to the broker. Therefore, our fee is not a one-off 50% of the savings, but a smaller commission which will continue for as long as you use the 3 rd party broker.

Work with other providers is normally achieved on an agency basis through direct negotiation on your behalf with the provider.

Example 1: We had a firm that rented the flowers in the office at $600 per month - lovely pot plants and colourful flowers and palms that filled the space. It was confirmed that this arrangement (no pun intended) had been in place for over 3 years - $21,600 on plants!

We negotiated with the owner of the plants to make 1 more payment and keep the plants, thereby saving $7,200 per year in outgoings showing that smaller monthly amounts add up!

Example 2: At another firm, they had used the same insurance broker for years. Whilst the premium increases were manageable and the relationship with the broker sound, a contract review identifiedthat the broker had not confirmed that the client was a charity – and charities are sometimes exempt from stamp duty on insurance premiums.

Further investigations showed that the broker had over-charged more than $75,000 in stamp duty that was exempt and should not have been charged. This was successfully recouped from the broker.

Example 3: For process improvement, another firm had a complex reconciliation for superannuation payments. Over 200 staff with many Super funds to pay and reconcile, the process took 12 to 14 hours per fortnight using spreadsheets and manual workarounds!

The process was reviewed and then automated using their existing accounting software, resulting in the reconciliation taking less than 30 minutes each fortnight, resulting in about 14 hours of time saved per fortnight!