Match the purchase order to the receipt, assemble the evidence a deduction would need, and post nothing until the deductions analyst has approved it against a named supplier agreement.
Ingest purchase orders, shipment notices, receipts and invoices from supported ERP, portal or EDI sources.
02
Normalise the lines, and carry every variance forward with the document it came from.
Reason
03
Match order to shipment to receipt, and size only the variance those documents support.
04
Apply the supply agreement, the deduction tolerances and the grocery-code classification for that supplier.
05
Keep each supplier's terms partitioned to that supplier's file, out of any other negotiation.
Decide
06
Flag any allowance the retailer's own data shows is not offered on proportionally equal terms.
07
Route every proposed deduction to the deductions analyst who approves it.
Out
08
Retain the evidence, the rule, the notice sent, the approver and the dispute that followed.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
Robinson-Patman is live again and it binds the buyer as well as the seller — knowingly inducing a discriminatory allowance is itself unlawful, so the agent proposes and the analyst decides.
Example workflow
One deduction, receipt to posting
AgentHuman
1Variance detectedA purchase order, a shipment notice, a receipt or a defect record
2Evidence assembledOrder lines, shipment notice, receipt, defect record and the agreement in force
3Deduction proposedAmount, the rule that produced it, the contract it sits under and confidence
Stages one to four run unaided and no money is withheld at any of them — the agent is building the case, and the analyst's lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionSplits on the evidence threshold
Evidence complete
Goes to the deductions analyst to approve.
Evidence thin
Adds a supplier-compliance read first.
Deductions-analyst approval
The deduction is held with its evidence, its contract scope and the confidence.
Approve · Amend · Send to compliance
Approved — notice, then posting▼
6Payables systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
7Deduction evaluatedReversal rate, evidence completeness, dispute outcomes and code complaints
Reversals logged
Every analyst amendment is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Posting any deduction against a supplier.
Approving a deduction against a code-covered supplier.
Setting the deduction rule set and its tolerances.
Authorising a position on price, allowance or term.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Match purchase order to shipment notice to receipt.
✓Assemble the evidence packet behind a proposed deduction into the review queue.
✓Issue notice of intention to deduct on approved items.
✓Halt a rule and quarantine its queue when reversals breach for the named owner.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, never ahead of approval.
Deciding a disputed deduction after the supplier rebuts.
Settling aggregated open deductions with a supplier.
Delisting, volume cuts or promo withdrawal during a dispute.
Remediation and self-reporting after a wrong deduction.
Example output
One deduction, annotated
Everything the agent proposes is attached to the evidence it was built from.
Deduction output · single claimIllustrative example
Supplier
Proposed deduction
Amount
Evidence on file
Confidence
Contract scope
Domestic ambient supplier
Short receipt against the purchase order on one delivery
$1,240.00
Receiving discrepancy record
91%
Same agreement as the invoice
As receivedTaken from the purchase order, the shipment notice and the receipt — nothing on this side is inferred.
Evidence attachedPurchase-order lineShipment noticeReceiving discrepancy record
Why this deductionIt runs against the same agreement as the invoice — the point the analyst weighs.
ActionApproveAmendSend to compliance
What the score decidesBelow the configured threshold the deduction picks up a compliance read before it reaches.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every deductionFrom the order and the receipt
03Substantiation
Build the evidence file
Draw on the purchase order, the shipment notice, the receipt and the agreement in force.
01Approved path
Deduct on evidence
Routine variances arrive with their evidence already assembled.
02Human review
Send review to the exposed claims
Code-covered suppliers and thin evidence are marked, so the analyst's read starts where exposure concentrates.
04Build an evidence trail
The deduction keeps the evidence file and the buyer who raised it.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
The unsubstantiated-deduction rate is the share of posted deductions later reversed Nestack reports it by slice rather than in aggregate The cohorts that carry it are named, not averaged away..
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Small perishable, code-covered
4.9%
3.8×
Review
Concentrated, parallel negotiations
2.7%
2.1×
Review
Multi-contract national suppliers
1.8%
1.4×
Watch
Single-contract domestic, clean EDI
0.9%
0.7×
Normal
Bar: unsubstantiated-deduction lift vs. the all-deduction baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
A cycle ends in the suite, not in a note
A cycle ends when the miss is reproducible on demand and the next release has to beat it.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Reversals rise in one supplier group.
02Diagnose
First the reversed deductions are read against their evidence, then the rule that raised them is replayed until one cause is left.
03Improve
The fix and the deduction file that caused it move together, under one version.
04Verify
A fail on the affected cases is a blocking condition, not a note.
05Learn
The case joins the suite and the deduction-evidence standard.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The next detection meets a suite one case longer than this one.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, deduction workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Deduction workflow discovery and boundary definition.
02ERP and deduction-source assessment.
03Supply-agreement, tolerance and code-coverage mapping.
04Order, shipment and receipt ingestion.
05Variance logic and evidence binding.
06Confidence scoring and exposure routing.
07Deductions-analyst approval.
08ERP and supplier-portal integration.
09Evidence regression cases.
10Guardrails and deduction controls.
11Evidence-trail instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne category, one supplier setProductionProduction deduction volumeAdvancedMultiple categories / regions
Introduced at Pilot
Proposals with an evidence file✓✓✓
Deductions-analyst approval✓✓✓
Evidence baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by supplier—✓✓
Approval workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back to payables—✓✓
Supplier-portal integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-region supplier sets——✓
Multi-stage buyer approvals——✓
High deduction volume——✓
Enterprise supplier controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, transaction volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your supply agreements and deduction tolerances→Supply-agreement and tolerance mappingWeek 1
02Representative past deductions→Variance baseline, evidence assembly and bindingWeek 2
03Which suppliers sit under a grocery code→Code-coverage mapping, and the automation boundaryWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→ERP, portal and EDI assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Deductions the supplier reversed→Evidence cases and the evaluation suiteWeek 4
06What evidence a deduction must carry→Evidence thresholds, deduction routing and controlsWeek 3
07A named buyer to approve deductions→Analyst approval workflow, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
The bands are the work and not the plan, which is why week 5 doubles instead of running long.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Deduction workflow discovery, code mapping and the automation boundaryW2Supplier and claims data connectedW3Evidence binding, confidence logic and approval controlsW4Evidence cases and deduction guardrailsW5Portal integration, pilot deductions and targeted correctionsW6One deduction cycle raised under the buyer, then handover
Reading the bandBars track named work only. Two phases genuinely share the fifth week.
At the end of W6Production checks signed, monitoring transferred to Agent Care.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Retail AI agent
Build a deduction agent around the evidence a supplier can ask for.
Show us your deduction rules, the suppliers behind them and who signs one off. Which of the deductions you took last month could you substantiate today, line by line, if the supplier asked?
