Sometimes Target ignores invoices from vendors. When this happens, Target often ends up not paying the invoice. To get paid, vendors need to dispute the invoices in Synergy with proof of shipment or delivery. Sound familiar? You're right, it's just like disputing shortage deductions!

Almost every Target vendor has past due, unpaid invoices. By our count, on average, only 29% of the ones that could've been disputed and paid have ever been disputed and paid (before us). Most vendors have thousands, and in some cases, millions of dollars in past due, unpaid invoices that are going unaddressed.

And lucky for all those vendors not getting paid, disputing unpaid invoices has a very high win rate!

To support Target vendors in getting paid every cent they're owed, we've launched a new Invoices page within Deductions Navigator.

Within the CPG/FMCG industry, a supplier (also known as a vendor, such as Hanes) sends a list of goods to a retailer (like Target). The retailer would have previously sent a Purchase Order to the supplier, specifying the goods they want to buy. The supplier fulfills the Purchase Order by shipping the goods to the retailer, typically to a distribution center (DC), and then sends an invoice for payment. The retailer then pays the supplier based on the invoice for the goods received.

Invoices are marked Past Due if they are 14 days past the due date for payment associated with the invoice. If no due date is provided, as a backup we'll use the payment terms by department from the Vendor Management and Maintenance (VMM) app to determine a due date.

Past Due invoices are unpaid by nature of their status. To get paid, vendors must dispute them. SupplyPike also contains a separate details page for each invoice that includes features for one-click disputing, document integrations, and exports, and eventually will allow bulk and auto disputing of past due, unpaid invoices.

As mentioned above, we wait 14 days after the due date before calling something as Past Due and marking them as Actionable within our app. We chose 14 days past due date in order to allow plenty of time for receiving on Target's end as well as based on feedback from many of our customers.

Past Due invoices appear in the Actionable bucket. Just like with our Deductions features, if you dispute them, they will then move to the In Progress bucket and provide case information. Once Target makes a decision, they'll move to the All Invoices and Archived buckets. Disputed invoices will be able to be re-disputed if needed.

Unpaid Invoices will also eventually show up on the Dashboard with code UNPD and be filterable, just like a deductions code.

To successfully dispute an unpaid invoice for payment, a vendor typically only needs to provide some sort of proof of shipment or delivery. This can be things like a BOL, perhaps Target's Delivery Receipts, or a POD from your carrier.

Shipping document integrations can be set up for unpaid invoices just like we do for deductions today, so you won't have to spend any more time hunting them down and checking whether or not you've got the right document. Let our software do that work for you.

We're not only showing you unpaid invoices. You can see every invoice that we have any sort of record for in the All Invoices bucket.

As you can see from the image above, this will include:

Invoices with 810 EDI data available should have everything on their upcoming respective details pages. This will include item information, any discounts, and any kind of logistical information that was included with the 810 EDI transmission. It should also have the associated purchase order number, date, and any deductions and remittance information from Target.

Invoices that are older than 6 months prior to the time of onboarding Target with SupplyPike likely will only have a basic set of information available that will include the invoice number, amount, possibly due date, possibly related purchase order number and date, and any deductions or payments we can associate with it. This is due to a limitation on Target's side where they only store the latest 6 months of EDI data. If you can get us your older PDFs, or even better, the raw EDI data, we'll get that associated for you to improve what can be automatically or highly-efficiently disputed.

We're really excited about everything we have added and will be adding to support invoices for Target vendors. Stay tuned to our email updates, and internal app notifications, and please don't hesitate to email your CSMs or use the intercom chat bubble on the right-hand side of the screen here to chat about any questions you might have about unpaid invoices.