Retailers have many of the standard ledgers. Purchasing and payroll can be key concerns. However the main business areas are sales and inventories. Retailers often have point-of-sale systems which collect large volumes of useful data which IDEA can analyze.

The main tests on inventories are similar to manufacturing companies with perhaps more emphasis on movement, margins and shrinkage.

Additional tests include:

• Gross profit analyses
• Items past their shelf life
• Comparisons between stores on holdings and inventory turnover per product line
• Price adjustment transactions

Other typical area of tests include:

Cash Disbursements

• Monitor cash disbursements for stores
• Track cash disbursements for contractor and vendor services
• Summarize cash disbursements by account, bank, group, vendor, etc,

Loss Prevention

• Compare "No Sale" transactions to cash voided transactions by associate
• Identify stores with significant allowances
• Isolate duplicate return transactions
• Identify incomplete exchange transactions
• Look for check purchases and refunds within 15 days
• Find credit card purchases and refunds to different credit cards (same day)
• Identify potential fraudulent or improper transactions through selling price differences between stores

Purchase Order Management

• Reconcile order received to purchase order to identify shipments not ordered
• Extract pricing receipt quantity variations by vendor and purchase order
• Track scheduled receipt dates versus actual receipt dates
• Compare vendor performance by summarizing item delivery and quality