Effective promotional claim validation can be difficult where prior-year information is spread across commercial documents, email records, EPOS data and payment systems.
In this case, a retailer audit team submitted a claim for £95,000 in promotional EPOS trigger funding that it said had not been invoiced.
The claim initially appeared supportable and was approved. A detailed review established that a significant proportion was not valid.
Case Study
Trade Spend Audit
£46k repaid
Retail & FMCG
The claim
The claim appeared consistent with the nomination form, Joint Business Plan and ERP payment history, and was initially agreed.
Why the claim appeared valid
The promotion appeared nominated, the claimed period and rates were consistent, and no related invoice could be identified within the ERP system.
Did nomination prove participation?
A nomination demonstrates commercial intent, but does not prove that every nominated product participated in the final executed promotion.
Bringing the evidence together
Aveiroe reconciled nomination forms, confirmation emails, EPOS data, promotional invoices and SKU-level price and volume behaviour.
- Promotional nomination forms
- Promotional confirmation emails
- Retailer EPOS data
- Retailer promotional invoices
- SKU-level pricing and sales-volume information
Four claimed SKUs showed neither the expected selling-price reduction nor a comparable volume uplift.
The evidence did not support every claimed SKU
The combined evidence showed that not every nominated SKU had participated in the promotion as expected.
Strengthening future claim validation
Aveiroe created an Audit Claims Requirements framework setting out the evidence expected for EPOS funding, marketing claims, lump sums, pricing overcharges and related commercial claims.
- EPOS funding undercharges
- Marketing and lump-sum claims
- Pricing overcharges
- Other promotional or commercial audit claims
A nomination is not proof of final promotional participation
Effective validation requires the commercial agreement, claim data and actual SKU-level pricing and volume behaviour to be considered together.
Trade Spend Audit
Aveiroe helps suppliers examine promotional funding, deductions and customer audit claims by bringing together commercial agreements, retailer data, invoices, emails and transactional evidence.