Managing Disputes in UNFI
What are Disputes?
Not all deductions are valid - disputes refer to invalid or discrepancies between the agreed terms and the deductions taken from payment.
How to Dispute an Invalid Charge
In the event that you believe that you’ve been discharged, UNFI offers the ability to dispute deductions. Suppliers only have 12 months after a deduction is taken to file a dispute, so it's imperative that CPG brands proactively schedule time to submit and dispute ahead of deadlines.
To dispute a deduction, you must fill out UNFI deduction spreadsheet and email it as an excel attachment to the appropriate party (see below). UNFI asks that you subject the email “Dispute”, Brand name, Check #, Deduction Invoice #, and the Dispute Amount. Tracking number for the dispute will become available within 2 business days of receipt.
UNFI has a few different internal teams that handle different types of disputes, and in order to get paid back, you must submit the dispute form to the right team
UNFI states that resolution can be expected within 30 days to 45 days, but response times will often vary depending on the resolution team's capacity.
Tracking Disputes
UNFI sends a weekly dispute status report to keep you apprised of dispute statuses. The report includes the statuses of all disputes filed within the last 6 months.
Remember that UNFI deals with 100s of disputes at any given time, so in the event that they don’t get back to you, don’t be afraid to follow up on the status of your disputes.
Stay ahead of the curve
Embracing proactive deduction management to navigate the complex landscape of disputes can win dollars back and enable sustainable margins as brands scale. Using software to efficiently file disputes for invalid deductions can directly improve bottom line and margins.
Confido specializes in Cash Application and Deduction Management, helping CPG brands automate their deduction process and build collaborative workflows across departments. Confido’s native dispute tool automates support gathering and dispute submission to recover invalid chargebacks, and acts as a central source of truth for all cash and invoice management.
At Confido, we’re passionate about helping CPG brands instill best in class processes without adding 100s of hours of work. Contact us today to see how you can improve your deduction management process.