Scheme claims and collections — why distributors lose money to delays

A trade scheme that's correctly designed can still lose a distribution business real money — not through the scheme's terms, but through how slowly claims actually get processed once a retailer submits one.

Where the delay actually happens

Claims typically arrive through multiple channels — a phone call, an email, a message, occasionally a paper form — with no single owner tracking all of them. Each claim then has to be manually verified against the original scheme terms and the actual sales data, often by someone juggling this alongside other responsibilities. By the time it's processed, weeks may have passed, and the retailer has started asking, reasonably, where their money is.

The cost of a slow claims process

It's not just the retailer's frustration, though that matters — a retailer who doesn't trust that claims get settled promptly starts under-ordering as a hedge, or shifts volume to a competitor whose claims process is faster. The slow claims process becomes a quiet, ongoing tax on the relationship, even though no single claim was ever actually refused.

What speeds it up without weakening verification

Centralising claim submission into one channel — even a simple form — rather than accepting claims through five different ones. Automatically matching claims against sales data where the rules are clear-cut, flagging only the exceptions for manual review. And giving retailers visibility into where their claim stands, so "where is my claim" doesn't have to become a phone call at all.