Getting Started with Credit Recovery

Credit recovery turns the events every dispensary already has — customer returns, expired or destroyed product, vendor-funded promotions, and below-keystone markdowns on aging inventory — into vendor credits that get applied against the next invoice you pay them. Credit recovery is a product you run yourself: you set it up, review the memos, and send them, while the platform does the math and ShelfiQ handles the vendor side. This page walks through what happens from the day you sign on to the day your first monthly credit memos go out. It's the setup, not the math (the math lives in Credit Recovery Overview).

The whole approach is partnership-first. We're not trying to dictate to vendors, or pull a fast one. The idea is to use your data to optimize margins at the SKU level, and to ask vendors to participate so velocity stays strong and both sides come out ahead. Your existing buyer leads those relationships — the system does the math, builds the credit memos, and ShelfiQ handles the vendor communication. If you'd rather not set it up alone, our team can walk it with you, but nothing here requires us.

Step 0 — Data access (do this first)

Before any credit memos can be generated, the platform needs to see your numbers. Two things — and neither one is a POS login:

• Connect Metrc. In track-and-trace states, paste your Metrc API key in Settings → Metrc Integration. If you ran an evaluation, this is already wired up; if not, the portal walks you through generating a key. The platform reads your sales and package data — your compliance workflow stays exactly the same. We never add a ShelfSpace user to your POS.
• Export your monthly Dutchie reports. Self-serve credit recovery reads Dutchie report exports today. Each month you upload four reports from Dutchie — returns, discounts, IR Detail (costs), and current inventory (menu) — into the credit-memo wizard, and the platform parses them for you. On Flowhub, Blaze, or another POS, self-serve isn't live yet — reach out and we run the month for you.

That's it for prerequisites. The rest of onboarding is a quick self-serve setup, up to your buyer's kickoff (Step 3).

Step 1 — Set up your workspace

The first thing you'll do after signing on, guided by a short setup wizard:

• Create your retailer workspace with Credit Recovery turned on.
• Add your team's user accounts — admin, buyer, AP / accounting — and each person gets a login link.
• Set your escalation contact (usually the buyer) so any vendor pushback later routes to a recognizable face on your side.

Prefer a hand? Our team can do the initial setup with you on a call — but nothing here requires us. When you log in, you'll see a focused Credit Recovery dashboard — no consignment views, no AP module clutter. Just the credit lifecycle.

Step 2 — Upload your vendor list

The bulk vendor upload screen takes a spreadsheet or manual entry. For each vendor you'll want:

• Legal name + DBA — so vendor names line up with what's in your Dutchie reports and Metrc data.
• State license number — used to match Metrc package chains back to the right vendor.
• AR contact (name + email) — this is who'll receive the monthly credit memo and the response thread.
• Sales rep email (name optional) — this is your buyer's day-to-day person on the vendor side. The platform keeps them in the loop on kickoff and pre-approval requests. Email is the routing key; name is helpful context when you have it but not required.
• State, product categories, and the usual address details.

If you've already onboarded vendors for other reasons (consignment, AP), the platform reuses the records you have. There's also a good chance a vendor already exists in ShelfSpace, in which case you won't need to re-enter them. The list you load at credit-recovery time is a top-up, not a replacement.

Each vendor also carries its own settings — return coverage percentage, co-marketing rate, aging coverage rate, and which credit types to include or exclude. The defaults are sensible, so you can leave them alone to start and tune any of them per vendor later.

Step 3 — Your buyer sends one kickoff notification

Before the first monthly review goes out, every vendor gets one introductory email. The platform drafts it; your buyer signs it. It goes out under your retailer identity, not under "ShelfSpace" — so the vendor sees a name they recognize as the apparent sender.

The kickoff covers what's changing:

• We're going to review the numbers with vendors each month — returns, waste, aging product, pricing, margins, promotions.
• We'll start asking vendors in advance to help out on promotions when we want to run them.
• Nothing changes about how vendors invoice us or get paid. This is on top of the relationship, not a replacement.

The buyer's direct email is on the signature so vendors know who to reach for relationship questions. Replies route through the system so the conversation is searchable and the buyer doesn't drown — but the buyer is always copied.

Step 4 — First week of every month, the platform runs the numbers

Around the first three or four business days of every new month, you export the prior month's Dutchie reports and upload them, and the platform combines them with your Metrc data. It assembles one monthly review per vendor and produces a credit memo for each. By default the memo charges only the defensible base — returns, destruction, pre-approved co-marketing, and aging markdowns (below-keystone sales on product past its category age threshold). Non-pre-approved co-marketing is shown for transparency but isn't charged unless the vendor agrees.

Before anything goes out to vendors, your team reviews the credit memos in your portal. You can spot-check the math on any vendor, void any memo that doesn't look right, or hold one back for review. When you're satisfied, you click Send to Vendor on each one (or in bulk).

The vendor receives an email titled Monthly Account Review, with the credit memo PDF attached and a link back to the portal. They can approve, approve a specific amount, or decline — and ShelfiQ handles whichever they choose, answering questions with the underlying data along the way.

Step 5 — Vendors respond; ShelfiQ handles it

Once a memo is sent, the vendor has three options, and ShelfiQ carries out each one — no action needed from your team:

• Approve — The vendor replies "Approved" or clicks Approve in the portal. The credit memo lands in your Approved tab, and your AP team gets an email with the approved credit memo PDF attached.
• Approve a specific amount — The vendor replies "Approve $X." ShelfiQ adjusts the memo down to that figure, approves it in one step, and notifies you of the change. No counter, no negotiation round.
• Decline — The vendor declines with a reason. It's recorded, you're notified, and your buyer can reopen the conversation if it's worth another look.

Questions aren't a separate path — ShelfiQ answers them with the calculation breakdown, return detail, or promotion math, then still executes whatever the vendor decides. And if a vendor never responds: after 10 calendar days from the day the email was delivered, the documented credits (returns, destruction, pre-approved co-marketing, and aging markdowns) move forward, applied automatically for vendors you've set to auto-approve on silence or staged as Ready for Approval for your one-click sign-off otherwise, so nothing stalls on an unanswered email. Vendors keep 60 days to dispute any applied credit.

When a credit is approved, how you apply it depends on where your AP lives:

• If you run AP on ShelfSpace, your AP person opens the next vendor invoice you're paying inside the portal, checks the box for the approved memo, and sends. The credit is deducted from the payment amount, and the memo flips to Applied on send.
• If you run AP in another system, you have two options: download the credit memo PDF from the portal and apply it against open invoices on your end, or we email approved credit memos straight to your AP person so they don't have to log in. Your choice. The memo stays in your Approved tab as the record of what was agreed to.

Every credit memo moves through a clear lifecycle so you always know where things stand: Draft → Pending Vendor Response → Approved (or Declined) → Applied, with Voided reserved for a memo that's cancelled because something's genuinely wrong. See Approval Workflow for the detail on each stage.

Step 6 — Asking vendors in advance on promotions

One of the highest-leverage parts of credit recovery isn't the credit memo itself — it's getting vendors to chip in on promotions before they run. The platform surfaces pre-approval opportunities to your buyer monthly. The buyer proposes the promo to the vendor; the vendor approves or declines; if approved, the promotion runs as a pre-approved co-marketing arrangement.

We have worked hard to make this super easy for the buyer. The buyer can simply email the promotion to ShelfiQ, which stores it in the system to be re-surfaced on the credit memo, or the buyer can add the promotion in the ShelfSpace portal.

The more vendors are bought-in upfront, the smaller the surprise during the monthly review. It also gives you a much stronger position on the credit ask later — pre-approved promotions are uncontested by definition. See Co-Marketing Credits for how this fits with the broader co-marketing model.

Where the software stops and your team takes over

The simplest way to describe the split:

The software handles: the big one — monthly credit memo generation (the math, the PDFs, all of it). Plus data aggregation across Metrc and your uploaded Dutchie reports, the vendor kickoff draft (sent under your identity), and — through ShelfiQ — delivering each memo, answering vendor questions with real data, executing the vendor's decision, and moving documented credits forward when a vendor goes silent after the response window — auto-applied for vendors you've set to auto-approve, or staged as Ready for Approval for your one-click sign-off otherwise.

Your buyer handles: vendor relationship questions, a decline worth revisiting, anything that calls for a recognizable face. You own those conversations — that's how vendor trust survives the change. ShelfiQ facilitates and executes; it never negotiates on your behalf.

Your AP team handles: applying approved credits against the next invoice you pay each vendor. One checkbox per credit memo on the payment screen.

What it looks like end to end

Day 1: you sign on and set up your workspace — the wizard gets you through account, team, and Metrc access in an afternoon. Same week: you upload your vendor list and your buyer sends the kickoff. First week of the following month: the platform generates credit memos; your team reviews and sends them; ShelfiQ handles vendor responses. Approvals start landing within days — and documented credits move forward if a vendor goes quiet after the response window, applied automatically for vendors you've set to auto-approve or staged as Ready for Approval for your one-click sign-off otherwise. Your AP team applies the first credits against open invoices that same month.

By month two, the cycle is running on rails. Your buyer is having pre-approval conversations on next month's promotions. Vendor relationships are stronger because the conversations are happening against shared data, not against memory.