How to Dispute Deductions at CVS

At CVS, AP deductions are often referred to as Warehouse Payables. At CVS there are five major types of Warehouse Payables: 

• Allowance Deductions

• Pricing Deductions

• Shortages

• Case Pack Deductions

• Other: Cash Discounts, Taxes, and Fees

These deductions appear in the Payments section of the CVS Vendor Portal as invoice numbers ending in V, W, or X. Some deductions may remain in an open status in the Invoices tab if the supplier company gets into a negative balance with CVS. They will not be officially transacted and there will be no evidence of payment or deduction in the payments tab while you remain in a negative balance. In those cases, deductions will have to be seen only in the Invoices tab.

Deductions/Warehouse Payables often end in W, but there are some exceptions. In some cases, in which there is a shortage deduction (i.e. ########W), it may be paid back as ########WX or ########W.

The "W" at the end is meant to signify all AP deductions, and it can therefore be any of the above Warehouse Payables. As a general rule, V, W, or X are helpful to think about as AP deductions. 

Disputing AP Deductions in the CVS Vendor Portal

The AP Vendor Portal is split into four main sections:

• Invoices

• Payments

• CVS Vendor Portal

• Vendor Dispute Management Dashboard

To find an individual deduction, go to Payments, and click on the arrow beside one of the Document Numbers.

Underneath each payment will be a series of debits and credits on each payment. The Document Type for the debits are deductions, and they are listed as Vendor Credit Memos. The credits are listed as Vendor Invoices under Document Type.

Vendor Credit Memos can then be matched with its equivalent in the Vendor Dispute Management Dashboard.

In the Vendor Dispute Management Dashboard (VDMD) click the Initiate Dispute button.

That button will take you to a dispute form submission page in which all of the following will need to be filled out: 

• Remit Vendor

• PO Vendor

• Dispute Type

• Dispute Subtype

The Dispute Form is broken up into three phases:

• Invoices

• Attachments 

• Message

Invoice lines can be attached to the dispute by the Debit Memo Reference Number, but the CVS PO number, disputed amount, invoice date, and freight term are also required, and a comment is highly recommended.

Up to 500 invoice lines can be disputed per dispute form. 

Dispute Documents to Attach for AP Deductions

After the invoice lines are all added, the dispute documentation must be attached in the Attachments phase.

CVS advises specific document integration for each of the five major sub-types of AP Deduction, all of which are intuitive based on the makeup of the deduction type.

Allowance Deduction Dispute Documentation

• A copy of debit memo(s)

• A copy of the invoice(s)

Pricing Deduction Dispute Documentation

• A copy of the debit memo(s) 

• A copy of the invoice(s)

• The pricing agreement or any correspondence with approval of pricing change by the CVS merchant

Shortage Deduction Dispute Documentation

• A copy of the debit memo(s)

• A copy of the CVS signed POD of shipment(s) for each deduction being disputed

Case Pack Deduction Dispute Documentation

• A copy of the debit memo(s)

• Packing slip(s)

• A copy of the invoice(s)

• The CVS signed POD of the shipment(s) for each deduction being disputed

Dispute Documentation for Other Deductions

These obviously have to be approached individually, including whatever dispute documentation may be relevant for the situation, but for cash discounts/fees/taxes, provide at a minimum:

• Invoice Number

• PO Number

• The disputed amount for review on the initial dispute page

Message & Dispute Statuses

In the third and final portion of the dispute, there is another option to add even more clarity in the form of a message explaining the entirety of the dispute form. Whereas the Comments are for clarifying the individual invoice lines, the message can shed light on something of relevance to the whole package.

When the dispute is ready, CVS validates that the information entered matches a format that they expect for each field as one final check before allowing the submission confirmation.

Once the dispute is filed, there are only two statuses for disputes in CVS, each of which has fairly self-explanatory titles: 

• In Process

• Complete

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