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    Trace by Accelra · AI agent for trade promotion and deduction investigation

    A short payment.
    What did the deductions buy?

    Trace is an AI agent we build for your team. It connects your claims, agreements, sales, and delivery records, so your team can see what each deduction bought: more sales, a mismatch against the deal, or nothing at all.

    For finance, trade marketing, and operations teams in consumer goods.

    Discuss your workflowFollow a deduction
    One short payment. What the money bought. Your team decides. 2 min
    Read the video transcript

    We invoiced our distributor $100,000. $90,000 of cash came back. What did that $10,000 buy us?

    I'll track it down.

    The retailer took the deduction. The distributor passed it on. Accounting received the cash. The answer exists, but it is spread across systems that don't talk to each other.

    Today Maya connects it all by hand, in Excel, across five companies: the retailer, the distributor, the broker, the carrier, and her own ERP. Five systems, five logins, one invoice at a time.

    Accelra sits with Maya's team and maps the process: the steps, the systems, and who decides. Then we build Trace, an AI agent shaped around it.

    Trace links the evidence. $5,000 generated a sales lift: 5% on eligible June sales, as agreed, and June sold a third more chips than a normal June. $3,000 exceeded the contracted deal: the claim came through at 8%, the deal says 5. The last $2,000 is a damage claim with no details. So Trace prepares the credit request, asks for the damage evidence, and Maya's team decides.

    Here's Trace on the same invoice. It reads the cash remittance, the distributor's portal, the broker's email and the carrier's record, and posts what it finds.

    Maya reviews it and sends it to Marco, the controller. Nothing goes to the retailer without his sign-off.

    So Alan has his answer, and the evidence behind every dollar of it.

    Stop settling for ambiguity. Accelra. People who care about what they build, and who they build it for.

    The question behind the shortfall

    The payment is short.
    The explanation is scattered.

    An invoice is paid short. The deductions are a real share of sales, and the question that matters is what they are doing for the business: are they penalties, or are they buying displays, shelf space, and extra sales? Today the answer sits across retailer portals, broker emails, carrier records, and your own systems.

    • Promotion mismatches
    • Pricing errors
    • Shortages & damage
    • Possible duplicates

    Spend less time chasing records. Know what your trade spend is buying, and stop paying for what it is not.

    What we build for your team

    From a deduction
    to a reviewable answer.

    Built around your systems and rules. For each deduction, an investigation brief with the reason, the amount, what it bought, the source evidence, open questions, and a proposed next step. Your finance team decides what to accept, what to ask about, and what to challenge.

    Scattered across the business

    Finance · Invoices & prior credits
    Retailer · Claim & sales reports
    Broker · Agreed deal terms
    Logistics · Delivery records

    AI workflow

    One case.
    Connected evidence.

    Identify each reason.
    Match and check the evidence.
    Isolate gaps and discrepancies.

    Manufacturer’s finance team

    The next step
    belongs to your team.

    • Accept a supported deduction
    • Request more evidence
    • Decide what to challenge
    Your team decides whether to submit a challenge. The retailer reviews it and decides on any credit; the route may run through your wholesaler.

    Illustrative website example · Sample amounts

    What did the
    $10,000 buy us?

    Maya in accounts receivable gets a plain question from her finance lead: we invoiced $100,000 and $90,000 came in, so what did the other $10,000 buy? The retailer took an $8,000 promotion deduction and a $2,000 damage claim. Here is what the evidence shows.

    Invoice
    $100,000
    Payment received
    $90,000
    To explain
    $10,000

    Illustrative investigation brief

    Two claim lines. Three answers.

    Prepared by Trace for Maya’s review

    Sold more chips

    $5,000 Promotion, as agreed

    The deal was 5% on eligible sales for a four-week display. The retailer ran the display, and June sold about a third more chips than a normal June.

    Sources: Deal terms + the retailer’s sales report + eligible sales.

    Next step: Review and accept. This is what the trade spend was for.

    Over-deducted, claim it back

    $3,000 Promotion mismatch

    The claim came through at 8%; the agreement supports 5%. The extra $3,000 bought nothing the deal did not already cover, and is most likely a keying mismatch.

    Sources: Claim + agreement + sales dates.

    Next step: Check for amendments; Trace drafts the claim and your controller decides whether to file it.

    Nothing to show for it yet

    $2,000 Damage claim

    No damage on the delivery record and no backup on the claim. Until evidence arrives, this bought nothing. If nothing backs it, the saving rises to $5,000.

    Sources: Claim + available delivery records.

    Next step: Request evidence before deciding whether to challenge.

    $90,000 received + $5,000 that sold more chips + $3,000 over-deducted, to claim back + $2,000 damage awaiting evidence = $100,000 invoice

    Illustrative example, not a customer result. The $3,000 claim and the $2,000 under review are not a recovery forecast; count credits only when received.

    A wrong tag is a clue.
    The amount still needs checking.

    A valid amount with the wrong promotion tag needs recoding. An excess or duplicate deduction may support a credit request. The evidence tells you which.

    Connected evidence

    Every answer needs
    a source behind it.

    Agreements, goods, and payments follow different paths. We connect their records around the customer, product, invoice, promotion, and shipment so each answer can be checked.

    One transaction · Several relationships

    Goods go out. Payment comes back.
    The evidence takes several paths.

    01 · Goods

    Goods move through the wholesaler. Delivery records show what arrived.

    1. ManufacturerShips the productOrder + invoice
    2. WholesalerReceives and forwardsWarehouse + shipment records
    3. RetailerReceives the deliveryReceipt + delivery exceptions

    02 · Deal terms

    The broker negotiates within the manufacturer’s authority. Finance needs the final deal and approvals.

    1. ManufacturerSets terms & approvalsProducts, dates + conditions
    2. BrokerNegotiates the dealTerms + approval trail
    3. RetailerRuns the promotionPOS logs + sales reports

    03 · Payment

    Payment returns with deductions. Finance traces each amount back to evidence.

    1. RetailerPays less the deductionsRemittance + claim backup
    2. WholesalerPasses payment upstreamPayment + deduction references
    3. ManufacturerInvestigates the shortfallA/R reconciliation
    Back at finance

    “We invoiced $100,000 and received $90,000.
    What did the $10,000 buy us?”

    Deal, claim, sales, and delivery records have to tell the same story before anyone can answer.

    Illustrative wholesale channel and sample amounts. Trading relationships, payment routes, and access to records vary by business.

    Why Accelra

    Experience connecting
    business systems.

    Our team’s career experience includes retail inventory and fulfilment systems spanning 26 countries. Our client work at Navya connects data pipelines and workflows with AI-assisted classification.

    That experience informs how we connect your records and build around your process. We validate the deductions workflow against cases your team knows.

    Our team’s experienceRead the Navya story

    Before we begin

    A few practical questions.

    Will it work with our systems?

    We assess your ERP, retailer portals, email, and files, then agree approved access and matching rules. Available connections vary; your existing systems continue to own records and settlement.

    Who decides whether a credit is issued?

    Your finance team decides whether to challenge a deduction. The retailer reviews the submitted claim and decides on any credit, through the wholesaler where applicable. Trace prepares evidence; it does not approve recovery.

    How do we measure value?

    Compare investigation time, evidence completeness, and reviewer corrections with your current process. Track flagged amounts, submitted disputes, and credits received separately.

    Start with one remittance

    Bring one deduction that takes too long to explain.

    Map the evidence and rules together. Build a focused pilot, check it against known cases, and measure the difference. Scope, timing, handover, and support are agreed with your team.

    Discuss your workflowExplore our AI agents