Using interactive surveys or in-person workshops, EY professionals help kick off each project by working with business stakeholders to evaluate existing processes and controls, as well as the fraud and loss scenarios for each restaurant. The resulting risk profile is used to build a business case and serves as the basis for loss diagnosis.
Using data from various systems (e.g., POS, billing), EY teams help determine the root causes for various loss categories (e.g., process errors, data manipulation) and quantify risks using AI and other advanced analytics technologies. In parallel, a data- and analytics-based infrastructure is built for ongoing risk analysis and monitoring.
Remediation efforts typically are carried out in a staged approach designed to provide early return on investment. At the end of each stage, remediation results are assessed and used to plan for the next stage. Finally, insights gained from risk analysis and remediation efforts are combined into one comprehensive report, and fed into an ongoing program review and improvement process.
The use of analytics is expanded to provide estimates for total losses from theft and fraud in a given restaurant or chain by physical location, type of employee, promotion or other criteria. The loss quantification function also can be used to calculate losses from franchisee underreporting of revenue, training errors and accounting issues, such as inaccurate cost analysis of menu items and poor inventory management.