Tracy McQuilkin

Changes, when are they a bad thing?

Answers Systems — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:26:08 GMT

This past weekend I went and saw the latest installment of the Pirates of Caribbean films, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Before seeing the movie, I experienced a bit of hesitation because a majority of the main characters that have made the franchise such a success and that I have grown to love were not going to be appearing. I mean how can you have a Pirates of the Caribbean movie without the infamous, Will Turner?! I overcame the lack of familiar characters and saw it anyways. Despite the major character changes, I proudly state that it was a really enjoyable film. The new characters brought something fresh to the table and breathed new life into the storyline, that frankly could’ve easily made the movie a bit redundant and bland. The set of new characters rejuvenated the storyline, setting it up for additional films. Filmmakers can continue to make Pirates of the Caribbean movies, bringing prolong entertainment to those, like myself, who enjoy it so much.

This recent screening had me thinking about what we do here at Answers Systems. Within the Settlement area alone, we make changes often but at the end of the day the goal is always how can we provide accurate and thorough data to our clients. Many of the ideas we have for change come from the team members that do the work on a daily basis. The changes we make bring new ideas, more depth and knowledge for our team members within our team. It gives team members a chance to learn new things and succeed so they can promote within our company. So next time a change happens, at the end of the day, the end results can yield to positive results.

Street Coupons are Part of the Family

Answers Systems — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:44:00 GMT

By Tracy McQuilkin

A family prepares for months before taking home a new born baby. They are constantly doing research, stocking up on baby products, and keeping a watchful eye on the health of the baby through regular doctors’ visits. At the end of April, Answers Systems will be adding street coupons to the ContractPro® family. For several months now, Answers Systems has been doing the essential research, providing adequate support, and conducting diagnostic tests to ensure feature enhancements allow street coupons to be just another type of contract through ContractPro®. Up until this April Release, Answers Systems has processed street coupon claims in a separate settlement system. ContractPro will have the ability to accept Fixed Rate and BOGO (Buy one get one) type offers. Keep your eyes out for information about this upcoming enhancement.

While technology may change, these “tips to make operator coupon settlement easier” stay the same…

Tips to Make Operator Coupon Settlement Easier
Need some ideas on planning your next operator coupon? Here are some tips to help you make settling those incoming claims a little easier and effective:

• Be specific on the guidelines

For example Buy One Get One, do you mean buy two cases and get the price of the second purchase in the form of a rebate check, or do you mean buy one case and you will ship them a second case free?

• Stick to the guidelines

If you state no photocopies on the coupon, stick to that. The more rules you list that you allow exceptions for, the more exceptions you will end up having to deal with.

• Look for cut and paste jobs

We see more "suspicious" proof of performance for street coupon type claims than we do for contracted type claims. Sometimes we will see proof of performance where the bottom of one invoice has been cut and taped to the top of another and then photocopied. In these situations, a good verifier can see where the cut and paste job isn't lining up quite right.

• Be adventurous with your coupons

Operators often respond well to merchandise type coupons, especially if the prizes are well known brands/products. DSRs, on the other hand, to participate more aggressively when they receive a money incentive. From our experience if the premiums vary and are nice quality products, we get more coupons coming in for those merchandise-based promotions than the money deals. Use these types of deals to sell your product, put your logo on them. Then not only do they get a great prize for purchasing your product, they also advertise your company with what they got.

• Try not to run two coupons at the same time for the same products

When this happens, we tend to have more rejects than payments because customers submit the same invoices for both offers. Also you run into the dilemma if both come in at the same time which promotion to reject them for, do you call them and ask them or just pick one?

Technorati tags: feature release, street coupons, operator coupon settlement

Claims – To hold up or not hold up, what is required?

Answers Systems — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:54:31 GMT

By Tracy McQuilkin

In order to accurately process a claim we not only need a valid contract in ContractPro but we also require specific information on the actual claims themselves. If the information is missing from a claim we receive we place the claim on hold until the information is received. Below are some of the fields we must have, note depending on the claim type the fields vary. If you would like the full SOP for these requirements please contact your Answers Systems Account Manager.

To ensure your customers are submitting the following when requesting rebates for Contracted deviated or HQ (Operator) billbacks :

• Claimant Name and Address
• Alternate Mail to Name and Address if needed
• Invoice Number
• Invoice Date
• Amount Requested
• Invoice Time period (Start and end dates)
• Distributor product number
• Manufacturer product number
• Product Description
• Product Unit of Measure
• Quantity per product
• Request Rate per Product
• Request amount per Product
• Answers Systems ContractPro name and/or ContractPro ID
• Operator claims should include the distributor they purchase the product from

To ensure your customers are submitting the following when requesting rebates for Marketing Support billbacks if applicable:

• Claimant Name and Address
• Alternate Mail to Name and Address if needed
• Invoice Number
• Invoice Date
• Amount Requested
• Invoice Time period
• Promotion Name
• Answers Systems ContractPro name and/or ContractPro ID
• Must also include proof of event that took place (See client specific manuals for exact requirements)

Technorati tags: claim, billback, trade promotion management

Sleigh Full of Trade Spend Claims

Answers Systems — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:50:22 GMT

By Tracy McQuilkin

I believe the story goes, “and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in the hope that St. Nick with a sleigh full of claims would soon be there.” Alright, so that’s not exactly how the story goes, but here at Answers Systems Santa will be bringing claims this time a year and lots of them.

During the month of December, the claim settlement team is hit the hardest. Clients are trying to get their claims paid before year’s end. Even if a client has a different fiscal calendar, they still like to see low numbers before the end of the year on deductions. Perhaps because the holidays bring time off and they want to make sure the work gets done before they are out of the office. Either way there is a noticeable increased demand in clients wanting their deduction balances down before the clock strikes midnight (well, maybe 5:00 pm) on December 31.

Answers Systems prepares for this increase in December workload in various ways. One way Answer Systems prepares for such a demand is by merging staff efforts. Team members from various departments offer assistance by helping verify claims. Answers Systems employees are willing to support each other and will go the extra mile to resolve your claims before the end of the year. So, this holiday season when Santa brings his sleigh full of claims, Answers Systems will have their elves work diligently to bring your deduction balances down.

Rebate Settlement and Data Acquisition

Answers Systems — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:58:10 GMT

Tracy McQuilkin

Data acquisition and cleansing in the process of rebate settlement can be a challenge. Each day in the Settlement Department here at Answers Systems, we work with thousands upon thousands of fields of data. The data we capture is only as good as the data we receive. Many times in the course of data acquisition, we get partial or illegible information. We do our best to cleanse it and capture it, but there are times when we run into roadblocks.

Sometimes during the rebate settlement process, we have to place a claim on “pending” status or “on hold” to get the missing information that is holding up rebate settlement. This interruption in the flow of a claim will almost guarantee a deduction.

So what is the answer to more efficient data acquisition and rebate settlement? One key is for contract creators and approvers to ensure the trade-spending contract is set up accurately and completely before it’s delivered to the customer. Our ContractPro users have useful templates and tools to make it much easier to ensure accuracy, but it is always important to carefully review contact information, SKUs, etc., before communicating the agreement. Other challenges, such as illegible proof of performance, are being met through our Eclaim initiatives with operators and distributors.

Technorati tags: rebate settlement, data acquisition, trade spending

All Aboard the Claim Train!

Answers Systems — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:32:18 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

A claim moves through our system like a train on its track until a “pending” or “on hold” stops the claim. Some claims have to take extended stops in their journey toward claim settlement.

Pendings and On Holds not only stop the claim train progress, but many times stop it for a long period of time. Pendings are claims where the contract we have on file does not match to what is requested on the claim we received. Pendings require more work for many people. Just think if the customer had the same copy of the contract we have on file--how many less Pendings would we all have to deal with? Luckily, you have that option in the ContractPro® application to print or email the contract you created (the one we have on file to verify claims against) to your customers.

On Holds are slightly different: they are “held up” because the claim itself is missing something. If your customers have a contract that stated what is required when submitting a claim, that helps create less On Holds. That’s where sending the contract from the ContractPro® tool comes in handy, too.

Think of it like this: if you were taking a train trip from Tampa, Florida, to Torrington, Connecticut, would you like the train to stay on track or take an unexpected detour—or worse, go off the tracks—that keeps you stuck for a few months somewhere between your originating city and final destination? Claims are no different, do what you can to avoid Pendings and On Holds up front to avoid that crash later.

Overriding Pendings Versus Contract Management in Rebate Settlement

Answers Systems — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:44:39 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

When performing rebate settlement for our foodservice manufacturer clients, we often get the following question regarding pendings:

Why can’t we just override the pending and pay it?

Short answer: we can, but we don't recommend doing this.

When you override a pending, all you are doing is fixing that one claim instead of addressing the root cause of the claim in error. Why not take a few extra minutes in your contract management process and either update the contract in the ContractPro® solution, or ensure that your customer has the correct contract terms on file in their system?

If you update the contract (or work with your customer to get the correct terms in their system) not only are you fixing that one pending claim--you are also fixing all future claims against that contract. This means future claims will not pend for that same reason, causing less pendings and more rebate settlement via check rather than deductions.

Typically a pending often means a guaranteed deduction. As stated in previous blogs, deductions adds a lot of extra work to both Answers Systems and our clients: pendings are no different. So what solution do you think is best: take a few extra minutes to fix your pending through some best-practice contract management steps up front, or take a lot of extra time on deductions and pendings for all future claims to come?

Technorati tags: data acquisition, rebate settlement, contract management, pendings

Why deduct vs. wait for a check?

Answers Systems — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:57:55 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

Distributors deduct because they do not get paid quickly enough. The biggest cause of claims not getting paid on time is because of "pendings."

A status of "pending" occurs when the contract we have on file does not match the claim we received. Why is that? Why are customers given different contracts than what are input into the ContractPro® application? Those ContractPro® clients that have fewer pendings have fewer deductions. Pendings and deductions go hand and hand.

Did you know when a claim is paid by deduction an additional six hands have to touch that claim? To change this we need to make sure that distributors get their contracts prior to their program starting and use the ContractPro® contract letter to communicate with the customers. If the claims match the contracts we will have far less deductions causing a lot less work for both sides.

Changes, Changes, Changes

Answers Systems — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:56:04 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

We are always looking for ways to do things better, more accurately, and more timely within the Settlement department. We are working on testing an enhancement for claim verification that will do all of these things. Our current process for e-claims works pretty well to resolve contracts/trade spending agreements. We are going to use this same process on paper claims.

Our current clients will soon receive more information about this enhancement explaining exactly what it is and how it will help us to process claims in an even more timely and accurate manner. While there is nothing better than e-claims received via FTP that are fed into our system, this will be the next best thing.

Tips to Make Operator Coupon Settlement Easier

Answers Systems — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:05:01 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

Need some ideas on planning your next operator coupon? Here are some tips to help you make settling those incoming claims a little easier and effective:

Be specific on the guidelines

For example Buy One Get One, do you mean buy two cases and get the price of the second purchase in the form of a rebate check, or do you mean buy one case and you will ship them a second case free?

Stick to the guidelines

If you state no photocopies on the coupon, stick to that. The more rules you list that you allow exceptions for, the more exceptions you will end up having to deal with.

Look for cut and paste jobs

Be adventurous with your coupons

Try not to run two coupons at the same time for the same products