Our guest was Heather Reid, Director of Education Canada and Accounting Insights at 8th & Walton, and we are discussing High Radius.
Lainie: What is High Radius, and why would a Walmart supplier use it?
Heather: High Radius is Walmart’s third-party cloud-based portal used to invoice suppliers. It’s used anytime they need to invoice you for additional things like co-ops, deals, or on-time-and-in-full charges. It’s also used by other retailers, so it’s not just Walmart that uses High Radius. Other retailers use it to collect funds from their suppliers as well.
Lainie: Many suppliers are still becoming familiar with High Radius. What are some of the common misunderstandings suppliers have when they’re dealing with the system?
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Heather: It’s a great question, and I’d like to answer that with four different areas, four different things that I see. The first option is the view option, which allows us to view both open and closed bills. I’ll explain the difference between these two.
An open bill has not yet been deducted or paid by the supplier, and you have 30 days to pay it. A closed bill is a bill that has already been paid or deducted. One of the things I’m noticing is that suppliers think they can only see a limited amount of time on those closed bills. However, if you go to the document date and sort it in ascending order, you can actually see the entire history.
The other one would be additional documentation. If you get your invoice and you look at it, it’ll give you directions on what the invoice is about, but sometimes we need a little bit more. With that, we can actually go in and create a dispute with High Radius and ask for additional support documentation, and they’ll send that to you.
The other part would be submitting disputes. We can submit disputes on things that may have been incorrectly charged. My recommendation here is to make sure you provide as much backup documentation as possible. That could be an email, a conversation, or agreements that have happened through those different emails.
And the last part is you can actually manage additional users so everybody in the company can get access to High Radius and not just yourself. If you’re in accounting, the sales team also benefits from this.
Lainie: Thank you so much, Heather. Are there any other tips or suggestions you would have for suppliers who are working with High Radius?
Heather: Absolutely. I would just say make sure you’re going in there at least once a week. I would actually prefer twice a week, maybe even three times a week, just to see what’s happening with it, because Walmart can post an invoice to you at any time.
Three Minute Insights is produced by 8th & Walton at The Ledger in Bentonville Square. The Ledger offers six fully bikeable stories of private offices, individual coworking spaces, meeting rooms, and event venues. The Ledger’s stunning views and state-of-the-art amenities make it the perfect location for doing business, hosting events, and celebrating life’s milestones, including weddings.
