Albertsons Revenue Loss Crash Course

In this article, learn about:  

• How to invoice Albertsons Warehouse Accounts Payables 

• What deductions at Albertsons are 

• Albertsons Vendor Inquiry Submission System (AVISS) 

• How to dispute deductions at Albertsons 

• Compliance at Albertsons 

For suppliers in major retailers, revenue can be lost in a variety of ways. Almost all major retailers have safety measures in place to protect themselves against short and non-compliant shipments.  

When sales to a retailer reach a certain threshold, the supply chain becomes more complex and miscommunications start to multiply. This often results in fines, deductions, and fees, only some of which are avoidable.  

For suppliers, it is essential to stay ahead of these by: 

• Planning for revenue loss 

• Performing root cause analysis when fines arise 

• Disputing deductions that are invalid 

Understanding revenue loss at Albertsons starts with understanding payments. 

Invoicing Albertsons Warehouse Accounts Payable 

Officially, Albertsons only accepts invoices for warehouse shipments through EDI (810/880). Suppliers who do not use EDI have to send them in PDF format via email to whse.vendor.invoices@albertsons.com. Since these are technically not allowed, they come with a $250 processing charge. 

Albertsons has many other invoicing rules that can be costly if not followed:  

• There should be one invoice per PO 

• There should be one invoice per warehouse shipment 

• All items with extended terms should have their own invoice 

• Invoices should reflect the actual numbers of items shipped 

• Invoices should reflect the number of items at the right price from the PO 

• Date invoices close to and not before the period of delivery 

• Invoices should include valid UPC numbers for the items sold 

At Albertsons, for product that is shipped to a Free on Board (FOB) destination (i.e., Prepaid shipping), the payment due date is calculated based on whichever date is latest between the receipt of goods date and the invoice date.  

However, for product shipped under FOB origin (i.e., Collect shipping), the payment due date will be calculated based off of the pickup date.  

Albertsons prefers that FOB origin invoices are dated the same day as pickup.  

Invoice Deductions at Albertsons 

In the warehouse receiving process, Albertsons takes deductions for damages and shortages. Other shipments, like dropship and backhauls, are taken into consideration when the trailer is unloaded.  

Other deductions that Albertsons suppliers can expect are:  

• Allowances 

• Billbacks 

• Returns 

• Post Audits 

• Coupon Redemption Billbacks  

For payments, Albertsons prefers Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs), but it is open to paper check payments as well on a case-by-case basis. However, processing deductions via paper checks is much more complicated than through EDI.  

Suppliers using EDI for Albertsons have to meet certain requirements common in the retail industry. Specifically, Albertsons requests that suppliers have EDI 820 Remittance Advice and EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment capabilities, especially for Direct Store Delivery (DSD) shipments.  

Most deductions and disputes are handled in the Albertsons Vendor Inquiry Submission System (AVISS).  

Albertsons Vendor Inquiry Submission System (AVISS) 

The Albertsons Vendor Inquiry Submission System (AVISS) is helpful for all kinds of Accounts Payable inquiries and actions. Some of the most common of these are:  

• Requesting deduction support 

• Disputing shortage deductions (sometimes referred to as short payments) 

• Cash discount disputes 

• Missing invoice payments inquiries 

• Supplier profile updates (for non-registered accounts) 

• APEX login assistance 

• Inquiries about C2FO (a 3rd party partner of Albertsons for early payment opportunities) 

Visit albertsonscompanies.com/AVISS to create a ticket.  

From there, click Submit a Request and choose from the following options:  

• Invoice Not Paid 

• Short-Paid Invoice or Deduction 

• Vendor Information Update 

• General Inquiry 

How to Dispute Shortage Deductions in AVISS 

For best odds in winning disputes for shortages at AVISS, it’s best to include at least the following documents:  

• Original invoice 

• A POD stamped with an Albertsons Receiving stamp 

These documents are also important for checking deduction validity beforehand. Proactively aligning these documents for each deduction will also help with forecasting how much revenue can be recovered.  

From the AVISS Service Catalog, select Short-Paid Invoice or Deduction. This will take you to a landing page for gathering information relevant to the deduction or the discrepancies between amount paid versus amount billed.  

The required information fields are:  

• Name 

• Name of Vendor 

• Vendor Email Address 

• Inquiry Type: “Short Pay, cause unknown,” “Need to dispute a deduction or billing,” “Cash discount issue,” and “Need backup for a deduction” 

• Vendor Type: “Goods,” “Freight Only,” “Liquor,” “Services,” “Equipment,” “Repairs,” and “Combination” 

• Goods/Services delivery location: Combination, Manufacturing Plant, Office, Store, and Warehouse 

• Invoice Number  

Other optional fields that may be helpful for are:  

• Vendor Number 

• Vendor Phone Number 

• Invoice Date 

• Invoice Amount 

• Purchase Order Used on Transaction 

• Payment Number 

• Payment Date 

• Comments 

• Additional Invoices 

• Attachments 

In the case of invalid deductions, it is essential to attach the Albertsons Receiving shipping document to shortage deductions to successfully win the dispute. So, while attachments are not required for inquiry submission, it is important to think of those attachments as being required for successfully winning back an invalid deduction.  

Ticket Management in AVISS 

After a dispute ticket submission, the ticket can be reviewed and revisited and followed-up on in the Ticket List View.  

Tickets in AVISS can be filtered by:  

• Ticket Number 

• Date Updated 

• State (Status) 

• Request Type  

• Name of Vendor 

• Assignee (“Assigned to”) 

• Description  

The ticket states or statuses are Submitted, Processing, Pending, and Resolved.  

• Submitted tickets have been pushed through to Albertsons, but no work has begun on their end yet.  

• Processing tickets are an indication that Albertsons has begun work on the ticket, but they haven’t pushed anything back to the supplier yet.  

• Pending tickets are tickets that require extra input from an outside source, usually, in the case of deductions, from the supplier. 

• Resolved tickets have been completed. After 7 days, resolved tickets will no longer be operable, and suppliers will have to create a new ticket to re-open the dispute. When resolved tickets are re-opened by suppliers after they are resolved, they will have the Re-Opened by Customer sub-state.  

There are only three sub-states, and they are mostly used for defining the nature of the work required on a ticket:  

• Awaiting Information 

• Customer Communication 

• Re-Opened by Customer 

In the context of deductions, Short-Paid Invoice, or Deduction tickets, “Customer” refers to the supplier. These sub-states are the general equivalent of “Supplier Action” statuses on disputes in other major retailers.  

Compliance Fines at Albertsons 

Albertsons Vendor Compliance Program is designed to keep suppliers shipping on time and in full and in an efficient manner.  

Compliance Fine Codes on Remit to Advice 

Compliance fines appear in the remit to advice under the invoice column as a 14-digit code starting with COMPL.  

The 6 digits that follow “COMPL” are the PO number that the fine applies to. It is important to note that there can be multiple compliance fines on an individual PO, so finding just one fine code will not necessarily show the whole picture.  

After the PO number, there will be a two-digit Abbreviation Code that indicates what kind of compliance fine it is. This table shows the definition for each of these abbreviation codes as well as the fee associated with them.  

NOTE: it may be worthwhile to check that the fees match the abbreviation codes on your deductions.  

 Compliance Fine Example 

For example, a code that says COMPL987654LD would be a compliance fine on PO number 987654 that is a $500 deduction for a Late Due shipment.  

How to Dispute Compliance Fines at Albertsons 

All Albertsons compliance fines must be disputed within 180 days of the infraction. Albertsons only lists three main requirements for dispute documentation, but some of them could contain multiple parts:  

• The full invoice # on the compliance fine you are disputing (see the example above) 

• Reason for the dispute 

• Supporting backup for the dispute 

These disputes should be emailed to compliance.disputes@albertsons.com. All further communication on the deduction will happen over email.  

Summary 

At Albertsons, there are a variety of ways that suppliers can lose out on their revenue. As is the case across many other retailers in the industry, short-paid invoices (shortages) and deductions usually make up the largest dollar amount, but falling out of compliance with Albertsons shipping protocols can have an impact as well.  

Staying ahead of where the revenue is being lost and disputing invalid deductions is essential to keeping your bottom line where you want it to be.  

Recover Your Revenue with SupplyPike 

The supply chain is complicated, and things don’t always go as planned. When retailer fines and deductions start eating into your profits, SupplyPike is here to help. Our platform streamlines the recovery process, helping you identify and reclaim lost revenue so you can refocus on growing your business. 

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