What Does an Expense Reduction Advisor Do?
October 22, 20214 mins read
Written by: Sean Fox, Executive Vice President, Professional Services

What Does an Expense Reduction Advisor Do?

An expense reduction advisor examines your bills and determines opportunities for cutting costs. An experienced advisor has worked in the industries that serve your business and knows how to compare your expenses against industry averages. They advise you on what actions will provide the best results and implements them on your behalf.

You may think your overhead business costs are under control, but we find that 98% of the organizations we work with are paying too much. Expense reduction advisors dive deep into your monthly expenses and determine where you are spending cash unnecessarily. Generally we can lower costs by 20-40%.

After learning about your company and how it uses outside services, an advisor reviews your contracts for hidden details on service clauses, minimums and renewal terms. With your approval, your expense advisor does what it takes to fix problems, negotiate rates, adjust contracts and save money for your business.

4 Steps Toward Improved Cash Flow

When your business spends money on services you don’t need or pay too much for, it restricts your cash flow. A skilled expense reduction advisor follows this four-step process to prevent excess spending, so you can redirect your cash to support other company priorities.

1. Analysis: The client must provide at least one month of recent invoices and a copy of contracts for all the services to be examined. This includes everything from waste management and telecommunications to utilities, property taxes, bank fees and more. The line items and contract terms tell a story about how your company uses its third party services. The expense advisor scours the details to uncover billing errors, usage anomalies and contract compliance issues. He also determines if you are getting your services at the best rates available to your business.

2. Review: Your advisor presents you with a report of findings and recommendations for savings opportunities. Expense reduction analysts should have extensive knowledge of the benchmark pricing in each industry that serves your company. A good advisor works with your service industries daily and has established a solid working relationship. He knows what questions to ask and recognizes when an answer doesn’t make sense. He is aware of unadvertised discounts and special pricing categories. He leverages all these tools to get you the rates and terms that match your business operations, location and usage. Because you want to protect your own relationship with your vendors, it is important to know that your advisor will not take any action without first getting your approval.

3. Implementation: After the review and approval process, your expense reduction advisor works with your vendors and contractors to obtain any refunds due, fixes errors, bargains for better rates, and completes and files any necessary paperwork. This is especially useful if you are dealing with the ins and outs of antitrust or class action proceedings and deadlines. Unless your expense advisor knows of an outstanding savings opportunity with another vendor, he maintains and strengthens your current vendor relationships. Vendors always appreciate working with an experienced contact who understands the business.

4. Monitoring: You will start to see savings as soon as any changes are implemented, but the work of an expense reduction advisor doesn’t stop there. He verifies that all the changes were made and then continues to watch your accounts in case something unexpected pops up. When you work with SIB, your business is safe from errors, issues and overcharges for the duration of your review term. That lets you sleep soundly at night. Not only will your company save money, but your staff can pay your bills with confidence, knowing they are accurate and reflect only the services you need. That saves the most precious commodity of all—time!

Most expense reduction advisor do this work on a contingency plan. They are paid a percentage of what they save you. There are no upfront costs, so if they don’t find savings, it doesn’t cost your business a penny!

What Businesses Benefit from Expense Reduction Services?

Expense reduction services are usually sought out by companies that want to free up cash by cutting costs, or they suspect they are overpaying for current services. However, experience has taught us that many American businesses benefit from expense reduction services–even when they believe they have costs under control. Many companies simply do not know that they are being overcharged.

The best time to find an expense reduction advisor is now.

SIB specializes in cutting costs across industries. We have reviewed more than $3 billion in spend across 70,000 locations nationwide, resulting in incredible savings for our clients. We work with all kinds of businesses, including:

  • Fortune 500 companies
  • Restaurant and hotel groups
  • Regional banks
  • Healthcare systems
  • Grocery Stores
  • Retail chains
  • Senior living organizations

Our objective is to save you money. We are not allied with any vendor or service providers, so we operate with your best interests in mind. We work within your existing service relationships and don’t stir the pot. This frees you to do what you do best: Run your company and focus on your clients. Are you ready to start saving? Contact us today for more information about our services, or see what our-world class clients are saying about SIB.