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Part 5 of 7 · Rebate claim tracker series ~5 min read

How a claim window gets caught in time

Missing a claim window is the purest loss in this whole area: the money was earned, the entitlement was real, and it evaporated because of a date.

Key takeaways

  • The window is a date on the rule, with a countdown, not a paragraph in a PDF.
  • Two reminders: one with time to prepare, one before it shuts.
  • Aim for early in the window; late claims get queried more.
  • Sweep the purchase ledger annually for suppliers with no agreement on file.
  • A closed window is recorded as a loss, with a number.

Where the deadline lives

Three places a rebate claim deadline can liveThree boxes stacked on the left. In the PDF, within ninety days of period end, labelled unfindable. In somebody's head, the person who negotiated it, labelled leaves. And On the rule, as a date with a countdown, labelled works. All three converge on Two reminders, on day five and day sixty, which leads down to A claim, early, rather than on day eighty-eight. A note says the same fact in three places, and only one of them survives a change of staff.In the PDF'within 90 days ofperiod end'unfindableIn somebody's headthe person whonegotiated itleavesOn the ruleas a date, witha countdownworksTwo remindersday 5 and day 60A claim, earlynot on day 88The same fact in three places. Only one of them survives a change of staff.
Fig 1. Three homes for a claim deadline. The system is not doing anything clever here; it is holding a date somewhere that does not depend on anybody remembering.
  • App integration
  • Machine learning
  • People

Two reminders, not seven

The first arrives a few days after period end, when the ledger has settled and there is ample time to reconcile with the supplier before claiming. That is the one that produces a good claim.

The second arrives with about a month left and is worded differently, because by then the question is not ’shall we prepare this’ but ’this is going to expire’. Everything in between is noise that trains people to ignore the second one.

Early claims get queried less

A claim submitted in the first fortnight of a window arrives at a supplier who has just closed the period, has the data to hand, and has not yet received the other four hundred claims. The same claim on day eighty-five arrives into a backlog and gets scrutinised as part of clearing it.

There is nothing formal about this and no supplier will admit to it, but the pattern is consistent enough to be worth designing around. Early is cheaper than late, in queries and in the time between claiming and being paid.

The agreements you do not know about

An annual sweep for suppliers with significant spend and no rebate agreementA vertical chain of four steps entered by a box labelled Annual sweep, once a year, an afternoon. Step one, Rank suppliers by spend from the purchase ledger. Step two, Which have a rule, matched by supplier, with a side box labelled The gap list, usually four to nine suppliers. Step three, Ask each one what our trade terms are. Step four, Two answers: none, or a PDF you never had. A note says businesses doing this for the first time usually find at least one agreement they had entirely forgotten.AWS ACCOUNTAnnual sweeponce a year,an afternoonRank suppliers by spendfrom the purchaseledgerWhich have a rule?match by supplierThe gap listusually 4 to 9suppliersAsk each one'what are ourtrade terms?'Two answers'none', or a PDFyou never hadBusinesses that do this for the first time usually find at least one agreement they had entirely forgotten.
Fig 2. The sweep that finds entitlements nobody knew existed. It is a query against your own ledger and it takes an afternoon a year.

Asking is not embarrassing

Sending a supplier you spend sixty thousand a year with an email asking what your trade terms are is a completely normal thing to do, and the worst realistic outcome is that they say there is no rebate arrangement.

The more common outcome is a reply attaching terms that were agreed with somebody who left in 2023, which is a document worth several thousand pounds a year that was sitting in a filing cabinet at the other end.

Record the misses

What a closed window should leave behind

  • The agreement and the period it applied to.
  • The amount that was accrued and not claimed, as a number.
  • The date it closed, and what the last reminder was.
  • Why, in one sentence, even if the sentence is ’nobody picked it up’.
  • And it stays visible, because a total of missed rebate over two years is the only argument that reliably gets this work prioritised.

The instinct is to quietly delete a missed claim, because it is embarrassing and there is nothing to be done about it. That instinct is exactly why the same thing happens the following year.

What this system is really for

Almost nothing here is difficult. Rebate terms are simple arithmetic, the data is already in the purchase ledger, and the deadlines are printed in the agreements.

The reason the money goes missing is that no single person is responsible for a set of facts spread across three inboxes, a finance system and one person’s memory. Putting those facts in one place, with dates attached, is the entire intervention.

Next: what all of this costs to run.

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