18-Month Mistake: Why Waiting to Recover Deductions Is Risky Business

Picture this:

You’ve had a busy year. New product launches. Packaging updates. Retail resets. Deductions? They’ve been piling up, but you tell yourself, “We’ll tackle them next quarter.”

Then next quarter becomes next year. And by the time you finally dig in, you’ve run out of time to dispute most of them.

That’s what happened to a fictional personal care brand. They delayed deduction reviews for over 18 months. When they finally pulled reports, more than $320,000 in claims had passed the allowable dispute window. Completely unrecoverable. No exceptions. No appeals.

It wasn’t a lack of effort. It was a lack of urgency.

Many retailers impose strict timelines for disputes, with some as short as 90 days. If you don’t act quickly, your right to recover evaporates. The dollars are gone, and the only thing you can recover is the lesson.

Key takeaway: The longer you wait, the smaller your recovery window gets.

Don’t let aging deductions age out of your books. Start your recovery clock now with HRG.