Deduction recovery for Walmart and Target suppliers
Walmart and Target short-pay supplier invoices for shortages, pricing differences, compliance fines and allowances. Forty to sixty percent of those deductions are disputable. We find them, file them inside the window, and track every case until the money is on your remittance.
Fee: 25% of what the retailer actually repays, invoiced after it shows on your remittance. Nothing otherwise.
The problem
Each dispute takes a person 15 to 20 minutes inside a retailer portal, with the right evidence attached, before the clock runs out. Finance teams file the big ones and let the rest expire.
How it works
A 24-month deduction export from each retailer portal (Target Partners Online allows 18). Two clicks; we can show your team where.
Within five business days: dollars deducted, dollars still inside a window, what we rate recoverable and why, and the items we would file first.
A two-page agreement, a read-and-dispute login in each portal, and a folder of proofs of delivery. About two hours in the first week.
Soonest deadlines first. Denials re-filed with better evidence. Approvals matched to your remittances. A log every Friday, a statement on the 5th.
After launch it takes your team roughly 20 minutes a month to read the statement.
What we recover
Walmart APDP and HighRadius, Target Partners Online and Synergy. We keep the evidence checklist for every deduction code and file each case the way that code wins.
Billed-not-shipped, no-merchandise-received, signed-short and concealed cartons, Target A030 carton and A034 unit shortages. Evidence: PODs with DC stamps, carrier-signed BOLs, packing slips.
Walmart code 30 duplicates, price differences and allowance disputes. Small in count, often the largest dollars, and almost always recoverable with both invoices and the PO.
OTIF, SQEP and Supplier Performance chargebacks. Short 90-day windows, so we watch the current season rather than the back book, and file in the week they land.
PRGX and retailer post-audit claims, Target A176 auto chargebacks. We request the backup first, then treat each one as the shortage or pricing claim it really is.
Sample scan
An illustrative report for a fictional supplier, Northline Foods, built from a 200-line, 24-month export covering Walmart and Target. Your report has the same shape with your numbers.
| Validity | Items | Deducted | Still in window | Weighted recoverable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dispute: high billed-not-shipped, no-merchandise-received, duplicate billing, Target carton shortage | 48 | $214,392 | $132,661 | $106,129 |
| Dispute: medium signed-short cartons, concealed shortage, damage, pricing, compliance | 95 | $249,095 | $123,920 | $68,156 |
| Needs backup first Walmart 10 and 87, Target auto-chargebacks, PRGX audits | 26 | $168,759 | $102,652 | $51,326 |
| Dispute: low SL&C shortage, substitutions, returns, freight | 17 | $46,418 | $26,402 | $7,920 |
| Likely valid agreed allowances, defective returns, packaging fines | 14 | $19,426 | $14,205 | $710 |
| Total | 200 | $698,090 | $399,841 | $234,242 |
Validity weights by code: 0.80 high, 0.55 medium, 0.30 low, 0.50 needs-backup, 0.05 likely-valid. The 70% approval rate is our conservative planning figure; platform providers report 74% to 91% on first attempts. Illustrative figures, not a client's.
Pricing
Invoiced after the repayment shows on your remittance. No retainer, no minimum, no fee on anything we do not recover. Month to month; stop with 30 days' notice.
Book a free scanRecovery firms have charged 30 to 35 percent for years because the matching is done by hand. We run the matching with AI against the evidence checklist for every code, and a person files and argues each case. The saving goes to you.
Who it is for
Shortage and compliance codes run highest on fast-moving, multi-DC programs; refrigerated and frozen add damage claims.
Target Beauty Studio and Walmart general-merchandise suppliers see auto chargebacks and audits that need backup before they can be argued.
Seasonal programs concentrate chargebacks into a few months; the 90-day compliance windows close before most teams look.
Typical fit: $5M to $250M in retail sales, a finance team of one to five, and a deduction line nobody owns. Brokers, 3PLs and fractional CFOs who introduce a brand that signs receive 10% of our fees from that brand for 12 months; ask us.
FAQ
No. The retailer repays you on your normal remittance. We invoice our 25% after the repayment shows there, and nothing otherwise.
For the free scan, one deduction export per retailer portal; that's it. If you go ahead after the report: a two-page agreement, a read-and-dispute login in each portal (Walmart Retail Link / APDP, Target Partners Online / Synergy), a folder of proofs of delivery, and a contact for pricing questions. About two hours in the first week.
The scan is how we size the problem and show our work. Many suppliers use it to decide whether deductions are worth anyone's time. If the open dollars are small we will say so, and you keep the report.
Only those inside the retailer's window: Walmart allows roughly 12 months on shortages and up to 24 months on other accounts-payable codes; Target allows 18 months on invoice-match codes and 90 days on compliance fines. The scan separates open dollars from expired ones so the report shows only what can still be filed.
Disputes go through the accounts-payable channels the retailers built for exactly this, not through your buyer. We file with the evidence each code requires and never file claims the evidence does not support.
Deductback is founder-run: Zeluis handles your account from scan to remittance. Matching runs on software; filing, evidence and appeals are done by a person who reads every case.
Yes, with 30 days' notice. Cases already filed are tracked to a decision and reconciled; the fee applies only to repayments on those cases.
Walmart and Target first, because together they are most suppliers' largest deduction lines and their dispute processes are published. Tell us which others you sell to and we will say whether we can cover them.