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BACK-OFFICE SERVICE

Vendor Invoice Management — Stop Paying for What You Didn't Receive

Reconciling 15+ vendor invoices against delivery receipts and POS sell-through every day. Short-ships caught same-day. Billing errors flagged before payment. Credits recovered automatically.

Stop Overpaying Vendors See Pricing

The 15-Vendor Juggling Act

If you own a convenience store, gas station, or multi-unit retail franchise, you don't have one vendor — you have fifteen or more. Each with different billing cycles, delivery schedules, credit terms, and invoice formats. Each expecting payment on time regardless of whether they delivered what you ordered.

Here's what a typical week looks like for a c-store operator managing vendor relationships manually:

  • Pepsi & Coca-Cola: Two DSD (direct store delivery) visits per week each, with different invoice formats, credit programs, and promotional pricing tiers
  • McLane or Core-Mark: Full-service wholesale deliveries 2–3 times per week with 500+ line items per order — cigarettes, snacks, candy, drinks, general merchandise
  • State Lottery Commission: Instant ticket pack activations, online terminal sales, returns, and commission calculations on varying schedules
  • Fuel Suppliers: Deliveries triggered by tank levels with BOL (bill of lading) documentation that requires comparison against meter readings and invoiced gallons
  • Beer & Wine Distributors: State-regulated delivery schedules with separate invoicing for on-premise and off-premise licenses
  • Cigarette & Tobacco: High-value products with scan data requirements, buydown programs, and state tax calculations
  • Dairy, Bread, Snack Cake Routes: Multiple small-volume DSD vendors with individual route driver invoicing
  • ATM, Car Wash, Air/Vacuum: Revenue-sharing agreements with percentage-based billing that requires transaction-level verification

Each of these vendors sends invoices that need to be matched against what was actually ordered, what was actually delivered, and what actually sold through your POS. When you're reconciling this manually — or worse, not reconciling it at all — errors compound quickly and silently.

The Hidden Cost of Vendor Errors
A single 500-gallon fuel delivery shortage costs approximately $1,500 (Warren Rogers data). Two short-shipped cases of cigarettes cost $120–$180. A missed promotional credit from Pepsi costs $50–$200 per delivery. Across 15+ vendors and 52 weeks, these "small" errors add up to $8,000–$15,000 per store per year in overpayments and missed credits.

What We Reconcile

Every vendor, every delivery, every invoice — cross-referenced against your actual receiving records and POS data.

Three-Way Match: Order → Delivery → Invoice

For every vendor transaction, we perform a three-way match. First, we confirm what you ordered (purchase order or standing order). Second, we verify what was actually delivered (delivery receipt, driver ticket, or BOL). Third, we match both against the vendor's invoice. Any discrepancy — quantity, price, promotional credit, or unauthorized charge — is flagged immediately.

Short-Ship Detection

A short-ship happens when a vendor invoices you for quantities they didn't fully deliver. It's the most common vendor billing error in retail, and it's almost always in the vendor's favor. When McLane's invoice says 50 cases of Marlboro but the delivery receipt shows 48, that's $140–$180 you'd pay for product sitting in their warehouse. We catch these the same day.

Price Verification

Vendor pricing changes constantly — promotional pricing expires, contract rates update, cost increases roll through mid-cycle. We verify that every line item on every invoice matches your negotiated pricing, current promotions, and contract terms. If Pepsi charges you full price during a promotional period, we flag it.

Credit & Promotional Tracking

Vendor credits — for returns, damaged goods, promotional allowances, and volume rebates — are easy to lose in the noise. We track every credit issued, verify it appears on subsequent invoices, and flag missing credits before the dispute window closes. Many operators leave $2,000–$5,000/year in unclaimed vendor credits on the table.

Duplicate Invoice Detection

With 15+ vendors sending 40–60 invoices per month, duplicate billing happens more often than you'd expect. Same delivery, invoiced twice with slightly different reference numbers. We cross-reference every invoice against delivery records to catch duplicates before payment.

How Short-Ships Cost You Thousands

Real-world examples of vendor delivery shortages that go undetected without daily reconciliation.

Fuel Delivery

Ordered 8,500 gallons of regular unleaded. BOL shows 8,500 gallons loaded. Tank level change shows only 8,020 gallons received. Loss: 480 gallons = $1,440 at $3.00/gallon wholesale.

Requires same-day tank gauge comparison
Often dismissed as "measurement variance"
Compounds across multiple deliveries

McLane Wholesale

Invoice shows 12 cases of Red Bull (24-packs). Delivery receipt signed for 12 cases. Physical count shows 11 cases received. Loss: 1 case = $38.40 per occurrence, ~$2,000/year if weekly.

Large orders make case counts easy to miss
Driver confirmation doesn't prevent warehouse errors
POS receiving scan catches the gap

Lottery Commission

State commission reports 50 instant ticket packs activated. POS shows 48 packs scanned at register. Physical count shows 47 packs in inventory. Loss: 3 unaccounted packs = $900 retail value.

Pack activation vs. physical receipt mismatch
Employee theft or receiving errors
$5,000/year average lottery shrink per store

Dispute Documentation — Ready When You Need It

Catching a vendor error is only half the battle. You also need documented evidence to get your credit. Many franchise operators spot discrepancies but lack the paper trail to dispute them effectively — and vendors know this.

DohAssist provides complete dispute documentation for every vendor discrepancy:

  • Original purchase order with quantities, pricing, and promotional terms
  • Delivery receipt with driver signature, time stamp, and item-level count
  • POS receiving record showing what was actually scanned into inventory
  • Vendor invoice with line-item comparison highlighting the variance
  • Dollar impact calculation showing the exact financial exposure
  • Recommended dispute action with vendor-specific contact information and credit request template

This documentation package means your dispute has teeth. Instead of calling your vendor rep and saying "I think you shorted me," you present timestamped, cross-referenced evidence that gives them no room to deflect.

Credit Recovery Rate
Operators using documented dispute packages recover credits at a significantly higher rate than those who rely on verbal complaints. When the evidence is clear and timely, vendors process credits faster — often within one billing cycle instead of the typical 2–3 month dispute resolution.

How It Works

Our daily vendor invoice reconciliation process — from delivery to dispute resolution.

1

Delivery Data Capture

We collect delivery receipts, driver tickets, BOLs, and POS receiving records from every vendor delivery. Digital or paper — we work with your existing process.

2

Invoice Matching

Every vendor invoice is matched line-by-line against delivery records and purchase orders. Quantities, prices, credits, and promotional terms are all verified.

3

Exception Report

Discrepancies are flagged in your daily report with full documentation: what was ordered, delivered, and invoiced — plus the dollar impact and recommended action.

4

Dispute Support

For confirmed discrepancies, we provide vendor-ready dispute documentation. You approve the dispute, and we track it through to credit resolution.

15+
Vendor relationships reconciled per store
$1,500
Cost of a single 500-gallon fuel delivery shortage (Warren Rogers)
$8K–$15K
Annual vendor overpayments per store without reconciliation
Same-Day
Short-ship detection and dispute documentation

Frequently Asked Questions

All major distributors and suppliers: McLane, Core-Mark, S&P (formerly H.T. Hackney), Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, state lottery commissions, fuel suppliers (Shell, ExxonMobil, Valero, Chevron, etc.), beer and wine distributors, cigarette and tobacco vendors (Altria, RAI), and all DSD route vendors (dairy, bread, snack cakes). If they send you an invoice, we reconcile it.

We cross-reference three data sources for every delivery: what was ordered (purchase order), what was delivered (delivery receipt, BOL, or POS scan), and what was invoiced. When any of these three don't match, we flag the discrepancy with specific quantities, line items, and dollar amounts.

Yes. For every confirmed discrepancy, we provide a complete dispute documentation package: original PO, delivery receipt, invoice comparison, variance calculation, and a dispute letter template customized for each vendor. You approve the dispute, and we track it through to credit resolution.

No. We work with your existing receiving process and add a reconciliation layer on top. If you currently sign delivery tickets, we incorporate those. If you use POS scan receiving, we pull that data. The goal is to enhance your existing workflow — not replace it.

Stop Overpaying Vendors — Book a Strategy Call

Every day you're not reconciling vendor invoices is a day you're paying for product you didn't receive. Book a free strategy call and learn how much you can recover.

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