In this article, learn about:
What "get paid, get better" means as a deduction management strategy for suppliers
Why disputing deductions without fixing the root cause is not a long-term solution
What “get paid, get better” looks like in practice
“Get paid, get better” should be the default strategy for any supplier navigating deduction management. Get paid involves recovering the money from an invalid deduction. Get better means figuring out why a valid deduction occurred, so that the same mistake doesn't generate future deductions.
Where this works as a strategic framework is by viewing deductions as a signal to improve processes, while simultaneously streamlining the dispute process, so that suppliers truly can get paid and get better.
What Does Get Paid, Get Better Mean?
Get paid deals with invalid deductions, and disputing them to get revenue back. Get better involves valid deductions, and learning from the mistakes that caused them.
Invalid deductions occur when the retailer makes an error and deducts money by mistake. These deductions should always be disputed.
Valid deductions fall into two main buckets: planned and unplanned.
Planned valid deductions are mutually agreed upon deductions that you should be budgeting for. These might be allowances, trade spend, or promotions.
Unplanned valid deductions are typically related to compliance issues, or where something in the supply chain broke down and caused an error.
Get paid is recovery; get better is prevention.
Disputing deductions and investigating their root causes are both established practices for most suppliers. But suppliers often struggle to manage both functions because they are time consuming and lack the necessary visibility to successfully manage manually. A supplier that disputes every single deduction may be disputing the same deduction every month. A supplier that only investigates the root cause of the deduction without taking action may be forfeiting recoverable revenue.
This is why the “get paid, get better” framework is so important, because manually managing deductions is nearly impossible. From the sheer scale of deduction management to the lack of visibility into root causes, even suppliers who are trying to handle deductions are likely still leaving money on the table.
What Does Getting Paid Involve?
Getting paid starts with checking the validity of a deduction. Not every deduction is disputable, and disputing a valid one can strain a retailer relationship. However, invalid deductions should be disputed. Most dispute processes require the following steps:
Gather proof documentation. Bills of lading (BOLs), proof of delivery (POD), advance ship notices (ASNs), invoices, and purchase orders (POs) serve as evidence. This is usually the slowest part of the dispute process, since documents may live across separate retailer portals, carrier systems, and email threads.
Build the case within the retailer's window. Every retailer has a specific timeframe in which suppliers can dispute a deduction. Walmart only allows disputes on deductions less than two years old. Other retailers have a cut off of 30 to 60 days. If you miss the window, then the dispute is forfeited regardless of how strong your case is.
Submit and track the outcome. Retailers accept, reject, or partially settle disputes. Some retailers allow for re-disputes or escalation on previously rejected disputes.
Only about 20 to 30% of deductions get disputed on average, and roughly 40% of disputed deductions are won back, based on industry-wide deduction dispute data.
Related Reading: How to Dispute Deductions and Recover Revenue
How Does Deduction Root Cause Analysis Drive Getting Better?
Getting better starts by asking why a deduction happened at all, rather than just disputing as the default. Every deduction should be treated as an alarm for an operational failure. Most deductions fall under one of five categories:
Operational errors: shipment shortages, mispacks, or incorrect unit counts at the warehouse level
Administrative errors: invoice discrepancies or pricing mismatches between an invoice and a PO
ASN and electronic data interchange (EDI) errors: late, missing, or inaccurate ASNs that trigger automatic compliance chargebacks
Carrier and delivery failures: late deliveries or documentation gaps that affect POD
Compliance gaps: labeling errors or pallet configuration issues that violate a retailer's routing guide
Returns, defectives, and allowances: deductions for unsaleable goods, customer returns, seasonal allowances, or defective merchandise allowances (DMA)
Shortage claims clustering around one distribution center (DC) might mean that there is a receiving problem there. A wave of ASN chargebacks usually means that there is a timing problem within the EDI process. But these findings only matter once they reach the team that can fix them, whether that's warehouse, EDI, logistics, finances, operations, or account management.
Why Do Recovery and Prevention Have to Run Together?
Disputing and preventing deductions should be treated as a connected system, not separate workstreams.
Recovery without prevention means a finance team spends hours every cycle fighting a deduction that another team could have prevented. Prevention without active disputing means that while the upstream problems get fixed, revenue is still lost to invalid deductions.
"The expensive deductions are the ones that repeat, because the same root cause keeps generating new ones every cycle," says Eric Shelton, Senior Customer Strategist at SPS Commerce. "Fixing the cause is what actually changes the number next quarter."
Related Reading: How to Systematically Dispute and Prevent Invalid Deductions from Major Retailers
What Does This Look Like in Practice?
Serta Simmons Bedding, one of North America's largest bedding manufacturers, was dealing with three Walmart deduction problems at once: EDI errors generating deductions every cycle, a complicated settlement offer, and a $200,000 post audit claim with a tight deadline.
On the “get better” side, the SPS Revenue Recovery team traced the recurring deductions to specific mismatches in Serta Simmons' raw EDI data and corrected them at the source, which stopped the deductions from recurring. On the “get paid” side, SPS Commerce reviewed the settlement line by line to recover more than the retailer's initial terms and used historical documentation to dispute and win the full $200,000 claim. That's what “get paid, get better” looks like in practice.
Another example comes from EOS, which saw a 17-time return on investment with SPS Revenue Recovery. Suppliers lose an estimated 5 to 7% of annual revenue to deductions, chargebacks, and compliance fines. This is why it is important to invest in deduction management. Across brands, SPS Commerce has recovered more than $2 billion revenue lost to deductions.
Where Should Suppliers Start Applying This Framework?
Most supplier teams are reactive when it comes to deduction management, because the sheer volume, manual processes, and lack of visibility make it feel impossible at scale. If this is how you are currently operating, disputing what you catch and writing off the rest, your next investment is get better. Tag root cause on every dispute, even the ones you don't pursue. That habit alone turns a dispute log into an early-warning system.
If your team already tracks root cause by category, retailer, or DC, then you're further along than most. The next step is tightening the loop between what the analysis finds and who's accountable for fixing it.
That upstream fix often runs through the same EDI and item data that generates the deductions in the first place. Clean ASNs and accurate item setup prevent a meaningful share of the five root-cause deduction categories before a shipment reaches the retailer's dock.
Related Reading: How to Build a Deduction Prevention Program
Ready to See What Get Paid, Get Better Looks Like for Your Deductions?
This dual approach is what SPS Commerce calls Get Paid, Get Better, and it's built directly into Revenue Recovery, with an automated dispute workflow for the Get Paid side and root-cause reporting for the Get Better side. Our complimentary audit shows you the real dollar amount and trends in your supply chain at no cost and no commitment. Our free audit includes:
How much you’re disputing, winning, and leaving on the table.
Top deduction codes, items, and DCs that are driving your losses.
Compliance fine and other revenue loss opportunities you may not know exist.