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• Event: Large Scale Automated Invoice Auditing: Auditing $1 Billion of Spend, $1 at a Time

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Event: Large Scale Automated Invoice Auditing: Auditing $1 Billion of Spend, $1 at a Time

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Speaker: Kirk Parsons, CPA, Senior Financial Analyst, Amazon.com

Location: Coast Bellevue Hotel, 625 116th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
(NE 8th St & 116th, Next to the Denny's Restaurant), Hotel phone = 425-455-9444

Time: 5:30 PM Social, 6:00 PM Dinner, ~6:30-8:30 PM Speaker

Price: $40. Everyone is invited (Membership is not required).

Payment can be made via Amazon Payments or via cash and checks at the event.

RSVP: RSVP is required for this event. Please RSVP by Thursday, May 13, 2010 via our RSVP Form.

Cancellations: Due by 4:00 PM on Friday, May 14, 2010.

CPE Credits: two

Summary:
Amazon has unique challenges in auditing transportation invoices and controlling the variance between invoice and manifest. To solve these problems we have developed a combination of technical solutions and a set of process/organizational changes that has ultimately allowed us to get our freight spend under control. Lessons learned will be shared in a manner that generalizes to other large scale auditing problems, and have relevance beyond transportation.

Topics presented will include:

• EDI Invoicing and Intake into a Data Warehouse
• Architecture of Automated Auditing Systems
• Effective Auditing Organization
• Use of Invoice Data in Accrual Calculation

About Kirk Parsons, CPA
Kirk is a Senior Financial Analyst at Amazon.com. Having been an entrepreneurial software engineer prior to changing over to a finance career, he has approached financial analysis using a data oriented strategy and an eye for automation opportunities. His work at Amazon has led him to develop automated systems from the ground up.

Along the way he has learned those tactical details that are not found in accounting textbooks, those that are necessary to implement and deploy a successful automated audit system. Along with underlying analysis and data-source mapping, Kirk has also had experience creating the right organizational structure to fully utilize and take advantage of automated auditing.