Steady ground for
your financial decisions
We turn scattered supplier records, spend data and exposure into one scored, defensible view — the kind a board signs off without a second meeting.
A five-phase method
built on ISO 19011
We agree the audit criteria in writing before any data moves — which entities, which spend lines, which risk thresholds count as material. Every engagement runs on the same audited path. We follow the ISO 19011 guidelines for auditing management systems, so the evidence trail holds up long after we hand it over.
Standard applied: ISO 19011:2018 — Guidelines for auditing management systems.
Scope & criteria
We agree the audit criteria in writing before any data moves — which entities, which spend lines, which risk thresholds count as material. Typically fixed within the first five working days.
Evidence collection
We pull ledgers, supplier masters, contracts and payment runs into a single verified dataset. Duplicates, dormant vendors and unmatched records are flagged, not deleted.
Verification
Each material supplier is checked against CIPC registration, VAT status and beneficial-ownership records. Findings are graded on a documented confidence scale, never on a hunch.
Scoring & analysis
Verified exposure is run through our weighted risk model — concentration, solvency, compliance and continuity — producing one comparable score per supplier and per category.
Report & handover
You receive a board-ready report, the underlying working papers, and a remediation list ranked by exposure. We walk your team through it and leave the model with you.
From 600 unverified suppliers
to a defensible view
A Highveld industrial group carried 617 active suppliers on its master file, R412 million in annual spend, and no reliable way to tell which vendors were properly registered, solvent, or even trading. Their auditors had raised it two years running.
Over eleven weeks we ran the full five-phase method. We verified every supplier above the R250,000 materiality line against CIPC and VAT records, mapped concentration by category, and scored each vendor on the weighted model. 143 dormant or duplicate records were retired; 38 suppliers failed verification outright.
The board received a single scored register replacing 617 unverified rows. Spend concentration in the top five vendors was cut from 61% to 44% over the following year, and the audit finding was closed at the next cycle.
What the work
tends to look like
Where the method
gets applied
The method is fixed; the risk criteria are not. Here is what shifts when we take it into your industry.
Continuity and B-BBEE compliance weightings rise. We test supplier concentration against production-critical inputs and map single-source dependencies that can halt a plant.
We focus on solvency of tier-one input suppliers and lead-time exposure, flagging vendors whose failure would stop a line within a fortnight.
Fleet and fuel supplier concentration, cross-border VAT exposure and route-critical vendors carry the heaviest weightings in the model.
Seasonality and off-take counterparty risk lead. We stress-test payment terms against harvest cycles and grade weather-exposed suppliers separately.
Procurement compliance and PFMA-aligned audit trails dominate. Every finding is documented to survive an external forensic review.
High-volume, low-value supplier tails are the risk. We separate material vendors from noise so buyers stop wasting effort on the wrong 400 accounts.
How an engagement
actually runs
Discovery call
A 45-minute conversation to understand your supplier base, current pain and the deadline you're working towards. No charge, no data required.
Week 0Scoping & agreement
We define materiality thresholds, deliverables and access. You get a fixed fee and a fixed timeline before we start.
Week 1Fieldwork
Data ingestion, verification and scoring run in weekly sprints with a standing check-in so nothing surprises you at the end.
Weeks 2–9Handover
Board-ready report, working papers and the live model, plus a session with your finance team to embed it.
Weeks 10–11How we quantify
supply chain risk
Each supplier is scored 0–100 across four weighted criteria. The weightings shift by sector, but the model and its evidence rules never do.
| Criterion | Meaning | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Concentration risk | Share of category or total spend resting on a single vendor. Higher spend concentration raises the score and the flag. | 30% |
| Solvency & financial health | Registration status, filing currency, judgments and available credit signals. Failure to verify caps the achievable grade. | 30% |
| Compliance | CIPC registration, VAT validity, beneficial-ownership clarity and sector-specific obligations such as B-BBEE or PFMA. | 25% |
| Continuity | Single-source dependency, lead-time fragility and the operational impact if the supplier stopped trading tomorrow. | 15% |
Bands: 0–39 low risk · 40–69 watch · 70–100 material. Every score links back to the underlying evidence in the working papers.
Standards we hold
ourselves to
ISO 19011:2018
Applied since 2019Guidelines for auditing management systems. It means our evidence trail, sampling and reporting would stand up to an independent audit review.
CIPC registration
Reg. 5928612146A registered Proprietary Limited advisory. You are engaging a real, accountable South African entity, not an unregistered consultant.
FPI-aligned practice
Member since 2020We work to the Financial Planning Institute's code of conduct, so advice is given on your interest, disclosed and documented.
POPIA-compliant handling
Since 2021Your supplier and financial data is processed under a documented POPIA framework — collected for purpose, secured, and returned or destroyed on close.
Questions we get
before we start
What's included,
and what isn't
Included in every engagement
Full five-phase method
Scope, evidence, verification, scoring and handover, run to ISO 19011 principles.
Documentary verification
Every material supplier checked against CIPC, VAT and ownership records with graded confidence.
Scored supplier register
One comparable 0–100 score per vendor and category, replacing the raw master file.
Board-ready report
Findings, exposure and a ranked remediation list your board can act on directly.
Working papers
The full evidence trail behind every score, handed over in usable form.
Model handover & training
The live scoring model plus a session to embed it with your finance team.
Not included
Legal opinions
We flag legal exposure; we don't issue legal advice. We'll refer you to counsel where needed.
Debt collection
We identify at-risk counterparties; recovery of monies owed sits outside our scope.
Statutory audit sign-off
We produce audit-ready evidence but are not your external auditor of record.
Ongoing monitoring
Available as a separate retainer, but not part of the base engagement.
News &
announcements
Updated concentration weightings for extractives
Following a year of mining engagements, we've revised the continuity weighting for extractive-sector suppliers. The change is documented in v3 of the scoring model.
POPIA framework independently reviewed
Our data-handling framework passed an external POPIA review with no material findings. Client data continues to be returned or destroyed on close.
R2.1 billion in supplier spend assessed since 2019
A quiet milestone for the practice. We've now run the five-phase method across supplier books totalling more than two billion rand.
New Witbank working space opened
We've taken larger premises on Mandela Street to host client working sessions on site rather than remotely.
Book a working
session
Tell us roughly how many suppliers you carry and what's forcing the question. We'll come back within one business day with whether we can help and what it would take.
- No charge for the first call and no data required to book it.
- You'll speak to a member of our Highveld team, not a call centre.
- Everything you share is handled under our POPIA framework.
