Case Study: Large Retailer of Outdoor Equipment and Apparel achieves $12M inventory variance resolution with Protiviti Supply Chain and Loss Prevention

Client resolves $12 million inventory variance with Protiviti Supply Chain and Loss Prevention Practice

Large Retailer of Outdoor Equipment and Apparel engaged Protiviti after identifying a $12 million unexplained inventory variance between its financial and operational systems. The retailer suspected cost allocation issues from the distribution company, but an internal team was unable to locate the source, so the company brought in Protiviti’s Supply Chain and Loss Prevention Practice to investigate.

Protiviti performed a four‑week procure‑to‑pay and inventory assessment combining data analysis and field interviews and identified the full $12 million variance: $5.0M matching variance (low auto‑match rate, overpaid invoices), $2.6M duplicate receipts from two poorly integrated systems, $2.5M freight variance from standard vs. actual freight capture, and $1.3M unit‑of‑measure discrepancies. Protiviti’s findings resolved the $12M gap and produced clear, measurable remediation steps to improve invoice matching, system integration, freight costing and UOM alignment.