Kerching! “Follow the Money” in Retail Property

Property is often the second-largest budget in a retailer’s accounts after people costs. For any retailer with a bricks-and-mortar or even clicks-and-mortar presence, property comes with a portfolio of leases or occupational contracts. These require regular payments for rent, service charge and insurance.

Managing these obligations is no small task. It calls for skills in Landlord and Tenant legislation, valuation, negotiation, detailed verification, payment organisation and liability and asset tracking. I’ve supported retailer teams across all these areas, offering guidance, real-world anecdotes and sometimes blunt Northern honesty with a fair few exclamation marks in PowerPoint slides.

Most of the time, proper prior planning prevents poor property portfolio performance. But now and again, a little glue is needed. That extra layer of attention or final coat of investigation often lies in the overlap between Property Management and Property Accounts Payable. It’s meant to be a sweet spot, a place where combined skills should help reduce or optimise costs. When it works, wastage is cut and more of what’s sold goes to profit not to unnecessary overheads. Let me explain.

Time to Check Down the Sofa

A retailer in growth mode might be too busy for fine detail. When the rollercoaster slows down and there’s time for reflection, that’s the moment to check down the back of the sofa. You might find a few pennies. Or pounds. Sometimes a lot of pounds.

Even well-established retailers can miss things. I’ve asked plenty of estates and accounts teams if they’ve checked for missed costs or unclaimed recoveries. I often get a confident nod or a firm “everything’s in order.” That’s fair enough when you’re deep inside a process. But I’ve scratched the surface and found hidden rewards, even in well-oiled operations.

In truth, I’ve helped retailers recover millions. That’s money which should have been profit, not parked in a landlord’s account or tied up in an old provision. The simple mantra that got us there? Follow the money.

The £5k Fallacy

The trail can reveal surprising things. And just as often, surprising gaps. One Finance Controller once told me they wouldn’t get out of bed for less than five grand. Given the size of their portfolio, I could see their point. But a line item of less than five grand might be a store’s entire profit. It might affect whether that branch stays open. It might not shift the needle on a spreadsheet, but it could mean everything in a strategic review.

In one example, a single store looked unprofitable due to a big variance between expected and actual business rates. The finance team saw a red flag. But by poring over spreadsheets of small mismatches, I spotted a trend. Not quite a pattern but enough to warrant a second look.

There were lots of underpayments. All under five grand. Across multiple stores. But one store had a huge overpayment. That store also had the lowest branch number, so it was first in the Excel list. As it turned out, a table of modest charges had been mis-posted in full against the first store - a simple input error but with big knock-on effects.

Once corrected, that “unprofitable” store suddenly became profitable again. The figures hadn’t reflected the real picture. And yes, the numbers that mattered were mostly under £5k. That Controller might not have been inclined to look but the money was there.

And the lesson? Always follow the money.

Auditors might say the same. But while they tend to chase large numbers and outliers, they’re not usually experts in leases or rent invoicing. They’re not necessarily looking with estate expertise. Sometimes, it takes that extra layer of glue. I learned this first-hand through what I call The Ghost Transaction.

The Ghost Transaction

I was helping a client check their estate database. One lease summary from the lawyers included a landlord contribution. Not huge but six figures. I went looking for where it had been allocated. It wasn’t in the capital spend but in the accounts as rent-equivalent. Fine in theory but the sum didn’t match. Where had this figure come from?

The finance contact showed me a board paper from when the deal was agreed in principle. But deals evolve - and the lease summary showed a different number. There was no paperwork explaining the change.

The finance team had booked a receipt that hadn’t happened. They weren’t chasing it. Nobody was. It looked fine on paper, but the money was still with the landlord. They were waiting for an invoice that was never raised.

Mere hours later, I coordinated the invoice, followed up the payment and updated the records. One hundred thousand pounds. £100k! Just like that.

History Repeats Itself

Naturally, I wondered—if it happened once, could it have happened twice?

I checked another deal from the same period. Same signs. Same outcome. Another six-figure payment never invoiced. Again, it was paid when we raised the paperwork. I kept going. Within days I’d found over a dozen cases. Only one couldn’t be recovered—a small landlord who eventually spent the money and declared bankruptcy. But all the others? Paid in full.

That first six-figure win turned into seven figures. All missed profit. All because nobody had closed the loop.

What went wrong? The board set a contribution. The surveyor agreed the deal. The lawyer processed the lease. But nobody followed through to ensure the finance team raised the invoice. Everyone thought someone else had done it, and nobody checked.

That’s why glue matters. And it doesn’t stop there.

Full Reconciliations, Full Value

We helped another client conduct full reconciliations of supplier ledgers - not statements of arrears, which often paint a partial picture, but full ledgers showing all financial movement. We matched entries line by line, tracked payment misallocations, chased down duplicated charges and reconciled multiple ledgers created across lease renewals, bank changes and agent transfers.

Often, the handover between ledgers is weak. Sometimes it’s human error. Sometimes it’s a process gap. Sometimes it’s deliberate delay. But in all cases, these slips cost money.

We worked with landlord credit controllers and client account managers. Most were pretty helpful. They unearthed old ledgers, reconciled suspense accounts and found missing allocations. Together, we recovered significant refunds: another seven-figure result where these funds went straight to the bottom line. Pure profit, with no new sales required.

The Overlap Is the Opportunity

Across all these stories, the pattern is clear. The Venn overlap between Estates and Accounts Payable is not just an admin function. It’s a critical value zone. Two teams that do their jobs well must also work well together. The handover must be deliberate. The baton must be passed not dropped.

Reducing expertise in this space is a false economy. The costs may seem high, but the benefits are far higher.

Final Thought: Go Back and Look Again

I hope these stories have inspired you to look twice at that overlap. Maybe scratch the surface. Just begin to follow the money.

Thanks for reading. If you want more examples, insights or links to useful resources, check out my podcast and website at thatretailpropertyguy.com, or contact my services organisation who can expertly follow the money for you at SmarterEstates.

Come back soon to dive in for more! You can hear the original podcast episode on this topic right here or on your favourite podcast platform.