Lainie: Welcome to 3-Minute Insights, where we discuss issues of importance to Walmart suppliers. Today we welcome 8th & Walton’s Heather Reid to discuss primary menu items within Supplier One that are especially valuable for supplier accounting and finance teams.
Lainie: Before we begin, we wanted to clarify that this advice is for U.S.-based teams, right?
Heather: That’s correct. It does not apply to Walmart Canada. It is for Walmart U.S. clients or suppliers.
Lainie: How should finance teams use deductions, payment history, and disputes to improve cash reconciliation and recovery?
Heather: With regard to payment history, disputes, and deductions, I really want to focus on the deduction side, because deductions give us a comprehensive look at what kind of issues we’re seeing. For example, with chargebacks, we can see what types of shortages we’re getting.
Heather: Supplier One lets you organize deductions by category when you download the report, by different allowances and by returns, and it also allows you to look at 3, 6, or 12 months, and you can customize it. It’s a great way to look for money that you might not have realized was deducted from a check, and then you can dispute it in the Accounts Payable Dispute Portal if you have the backup to support that it shouldn’t have been deducted.
Heather: Also, within the payment section, you’ll see payment history. You can see all payment types and check numbers. It gives you a list of all your check numbers, and you can download it. There is also an overview of the Accounts Payable Dispute Portal, also known as Disputes.
Heather: Right now, it’s really a visual of what disputes I’ve actually created and put into the Accounts Payable Dispute Portal within Retail Link. The systems talk to each other and give you a visual overview of what’s actually happening in that APDP app. It’s a quick way to access this information, especially if you’re in Supplier One on the payment section.
Are you a Walmart Supplier? Get in touch to schedule a free consultation:
Lainie: From there, how can suppliers best use paid invoice details, unpaid invoices, and 90 Days Paid in their weekly cash flow reviews?
Heather: This functionality migrated out of the old system when a lot of people were worried it might be taken away, and now it has been brought into Supplier One, which is fantastic. There’s a Paid Invoice section and an Unpaid Invoice section.
Heather: These sections allow you to look back over roughly the last week. You pick a day of the week, and it will show you what was paid in the last week and what is unpaid, including any invoices that are past due and have not been paid yet. There can be many reasons why they aren’t paid yet, and those will show up.
Heather: There is also a section for 90 Days Paid, which I love, because you can download it and get information on purchase orders and what was paid. It’s really helpful for reconciling anything you have outstanding, which can sometimes be missed when you just download the check itself. This allows you to pull everything into one Excel file and do your reconciliation.
Lainie: We all want to get paid.
Heather: Yes, one hundred percent.
Lainie: Finally, what are the most effective ways to use scorecard returns, OTIF trends, and OTIF charges to prevent fines and future deductions?
Heather: The performance matrix includes a scorecard that gives you an overview where you can toggle between OTIF (On Time In Full) and SQEP, the Supplier Quality Excellence Program. These are Walmart’s compliance programs, and they provide a quick overview—especially useful if I’m in management and want to see what’s happening without time to dive into the details. I can look at my scorecard, because it gives me that high-level view.
Heather: You can also see return trends, which a lot of suppliers love, because it tells us why customers are returning the product. They may have changed their minds, or maybe the product was defective. You can see how those reasons are broken out into different categories.
Heather: There are also On Time In Full trends, so I can see over time whether my OTIF performance is trending. From an accounting perspective, there are charges, and we can look at projected charges. That way I can see what’s coming—there’s no surprise when I get the charge.
Heather: It also allows you to see what has actually hit your books, and you can drill into that as well. The charges and trends still live in Retail Link, but Supplier One has migrated this portion over too, so you can access it there as well.
