Auditing purchasing and supplier invoice processing
Requesters, buyers, receiving, and accounts payable each hold part of the cycle. TellMeHow interviews them, sees their screens, and rebuilds the process through to payment, with its approval thresholds and its risks.
By process or industry
A cycle full of assumed controls
A department raises a purchase request, a buyer places the order, receiving checks the delivery, and accounts payable matches the invoice against the order and the receipt before scheduling payment. On paper, every step has its control. In practice, some invoices arrive with no purchase order, approvals above a threshold happen over email, and matching ends up in a spreadsheet. The process for changing supplier bank details is rarely documented at all.
Why this process is hard to audit
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Risks hide in routine actions
Changing a supplier’s IBAN on the strength of an email, with no call-back and no second approval, feels routine to the person doing it. It does not come up in a general question; it shows when you ask to see the supplier record.
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Matching slips outside the tools
Price differences, partial deliveries, invoices with no order number: exceptions are often handled outside the ERP, with rules only accounts payable knows.
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Sensitive data on screen
Showing the accounting software means displaying IBANs and third-party details. You need to see the process without exposing that data more than necessary.
The approach, in four steps
The guide comes from your method; TellMeHow follows it and adds what the screen reveals.
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1
Prepare the guide for the cycle
Create one population per role in the cycle and make the topics that matter to you mandatory: approval thresholds, invoices without a purchase order, changes to supplier data. Set the demonstrations you expect.
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2
Watch the cycle in action
Each participant takes the interview from their own desk, at their own pace. The AI interviewer asks to see an invoice being matched or a supplier record. IBANs and card numbers detected on screen are blurred by default before images reach the vision model.
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3
Surface rules and gaps
The analysis rebuilds the cycle, records the thresholds actually applied, and compares them with what other teams describe. When two versions of the same approval conflict, it suggests a targeted follow-up.
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4
Deliver well-supported findings
Publish under your brand the map of the cycle, the internal control risks found, estimated volumes, and opportunities, each backed by the excerpt or screenshot it rests on.
Example: a business services group
Illustrative example, not a client case.- Audited company
- Business services group with 250 employees, four subsidiaries, and centralized accounting.
- Populations interviewed
- Requesters in operating teams Purchasing Accounts payable Treasury
- Guide topics
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- Stating the need and raising a purchase request
- Ordering and receiving
- Matching and exception handling
- Approval and payment scheduling
- Creating and changing suppliers
- Show me
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Matching an invoice to its order and receipt
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Changing a supplier’s bank details
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Example findings
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Risk
Supplier IBANs are changed upon receipt of an email, with no call-back and no second approval.
Pinned screenshot, accounts payable 1 · 31:12 -
Volume
About 120 supplier invoices a month, a significant share of them received without an order number, according to two participants.
Audio excerpt, accounts payable 2 · 08:40 -
Business rule
Above €5,000, the invoice is approved by the subsidiary director, who signs a printed copy.
Audio excerpt, purchasing 1 · 17:26
What you deliver
- The cycle from purchase request to payment, with its roles, tools, and actual approval thresholds.
- The internal control risks found, such as IBAN changes without a second approval, each linked to its evidence.
- Estimated volumes and durations, with their ranges and sources.
- Opportunities prioritized by your scoring grid: paperless invoicing, automated matching, stronger controls.
Frequently asked questions
How does TellMeHow protect IBANs visible on screen?
Before an image is sent to the vision model, TellMeHow detects sensitive data with rules, including IBANs and card numbers, and blurs those areas. Blurring is on by default and can be adjusted per engagement. No detection is perfect, and participants can also mask an area of their screen themselves.
Can TellMeHow replace an internal control audit?
No. TellMeHow collects and consolidates descriptions of processes from the people who run them, with evidence. It surfaces risks such as a missing approval, but assessing controls and making recommendations remain the firm’s work.
Can quantitative data be added to the interviews?
Yes. You can upload exports, such as a quarter’s invoice list, as engagement artifacts. The analysis uses them to confirm or qualify the volumes mentioned in interviews, and every passage it uses becomes citable evidence.
Can participants withdraw what they showed?
Yes. At the end of each chapter, participants review what the AI interviewer captured, correct or remove points, and can delete part of the recording. Anything removed disappears from the analysis, the evidence, and the deliverable.
The features involved
- Screen sharing The AI interviewer asks “show me” and sees the shared screen, where the work actually happens.
- Cross-analysis Every interview cross-checked into sourced findings, with contradictions and follow-ups to resolve them.
- Privacy and GDPR Processes, never people: redaction, limited retention, and works council and DPIA kits included.
Other use cases
- Employee onboarding Audit how new hires are brought on board, a process where everyone sees only their own part.
- Field services Audit field operations with technicians who are rarely at a desk, straight from their phone.
- Order to cash Audit the sales chain from quote request to overdue invoice follow-up, one team at a time.
See a complete audit in thirty minutes.
A voice interview with screen sharing, the process map it produces, the deliverable the sponsor reads: on a demo engagement, with your questions.