Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Rebuilds Spend Controls and Audit Confidence with Oversight

Business Challenge

Before: Controls Weakened as Audit Was Outsourced

Like many global organizations during COVID, this Fortune 20 pharmaceutical manufacturer looked to reduce costs as travel volumes declined. The company moved T&E audit work to a lower-cost BPO solution and later added a third party tool.

While this reduced short-term expense, it created new challenges:

• Audit coverage became fragmented

• Manual effort increased

• Confidence in compliance declined

Key capabilities—spotting repeat behavior, identifying patterns across employees, and preventing issues before payment—were harder to maintain. Over time, leadership raised a critical concern:

“We don’t know what we’re missing.”

As gaps became more visible, the team lacked a clear, enterprise-wide view of risk across T&E, P-Card, and payables.

Solution

After: A Decision to Rebuild Audit as a Strategic Control

Finance leadership reassessed what “effective audit” needed to look like in a global, highly regulated environment. They didn’t want cheaper reviews or a narrow tool. They needed broad coverage, earlier visibility into risk, and clear outcomes—without rebuilding a large audit team. The organization returned to Oversight because it’s platform is purpose-built for finance teams and designed to detect issues before and after payment, including patterns that only show up over time or across employees. Oversight was re-established as a core control layer. With full data coverage and defined escalation steps, the team shifted audit from a reactive task to a strategic program.

Results

Why the Win back Worked This wasn’t about switching approaches—it was about restoring confidence.

By returning to Oversight, the organization:

• Rebuilt enterprise-wide visibility into spend risk

• Shifted focus from one-off transactions to repeat patterns and behavior

• Strengthened monitoring without adding audit headcount

• Regained confidence that meaningful risk was being caught—not missed

Oversight proved to be the platform finance leaders rely on when audit needs to scale and deliver measurable outcomes.

Benefits

For this global pharmaceutical manufacturer, the winback marked a turning point. Oversight strengthened financial controls, improved audit efficiency, and is enabling lasting behavior change—at the scale and rigor their business demands. By moving beyond fragmented tools and outsourced reviews, the organization operates with greater confidence, clearer accountability, and a control environment built for long-term compliance and growth.