For Retailers

Retail AP that handles every store, every vendor, every season.

Multi-store receiving, thousands of vendors, promotional pricing that changes by week, deductions tied to co-op and chargeback agreements, and a holiday surge that doubles the workload. Listra handles all of it against your policy, with the evidence attached and the resolution documented as it happens.

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Partial shipments across storesPromotional pricingVendor allowances & co-opHoliday surge
Invoice Case · INV-8841 · Northwind Apparel
ANALYSIS
Promo markdown invoice

Vendor invoiced 1,200 units at $4.50 against PO at $5.20. Buyer email on Apr 15 authorized markdown for spring transition.

Recommended resolution

Approve at invoiced price ($5,400). Update PO unit cost. Attach buyer authorization to the case. Cleared for payment.

  • PO & receipt matched
  • Buyer authorization verified
  • Promo agreement on file
  • Audit trail ready
PROMOTIONAL PRICING READY FOR APPROVAL

Promo review

FIELD
INVOICE
EVIDENCE
Quantity
1,200 units
1,200 received
Unit price
$4.50
$5.20 on PO
Payable
$5,400
$5,400
PO
PO-7218 · spring set
Buyer auth
Email Apr 15 · K. Patel
Policy
Promo within tolerance
Routing
→ Auto-approve
The work

Retail exceptions look different from everyone else's.

A retail exception is rarely a clean price or quantity mismatch. It is a partial shipment split across three stores. A promotional invoice that prices below the PO because a buyer's email authorized the markdown. A vendor allowance applied against a payment that someone in merchandising needs to sign off on. Listra runs the investigation across the systems where the answers live and resolves against your policy.

EXCEPTION 01
Partial shipments and backorders
PO total 480 units · 3 stores
Received 460 units
Action Short-pay 460, hold backorder
Listra matches the invoice to the actual receipts at each location, short-pays for what arrived, keeps the PO open for the backorder balance, and notifies the vendor with the expected balance payment date. The accrual reflects the receipts, not the order.
Autopilot ready
EXCEPTION 02
Promotional pricing and price variances
Invoice price $4.50/unit
PO price $5.20/unit
Buyer auth Email Apr 15
Action Approve at promo · update PO
Listra checks against the promotional agreement, the buyer confirmation, and the vendor master, then either approves at the invoiced price and updates the PO, or routes to the category manager if the promo terms cannot be verified.
Autopilot ready
EXCEPTION 03
Vendor allowances, co-op, and deductions
Gross invoice $24,800
Co-op 4% −$992
Markdown $ −$400
Net payable $23,408
Listra runs the match against the signed agreement, applies the deduction with the supporting documentation attached, and routes anything ambiguous to merchandising or the buying team for resolution.
Copilot recommended
EXCEPTION 04
Missing goods receipts at store level
Invoice arrived Yes
Store receipt Not posted
Action Carrier check · notify location
Listra checks the carrier shipping data, the store's receiving feed, and the vendor's delivery history, then either confirms the receipt or places the invoice on hold and escalates to the regional manager if it ages past your policy threshold.
Copilot recommended
EXCEPTION 05
Store-level emergency non-PO invoices
Type HVAC repair
Location Store 412
Amount $1,840
Action → Regional approver · GL 6420
Listra identifies the location and the authorizing manager, routes the invoice to the appropriate regional approver per your delegation matrix, codes it to the right GL account and cost center, and surfaces a retroactive PO recommendation to the buying team.
Copilot recommended
EXCEPTION 06
Duplicate invoices across channels
Original EDI · Apr 22
Resend Portal · Apr 24
Action Hold · reject duplicate
Listra runs duplicate detection on every intake against the original invoice number, date, amount, line items, and PO reference, holds suspected duplicates, and either rejects or releases based on the match analysis.
Autopilot ready
EXCEPTION 07
Freight and direct-import landed cost
Audit checks 4 dimensions
→ Contract rate verified
→ Duty & tariffs verified
→ Fuel matrix verified
→ Allocation 5 DCs by cost
Listra runs the audit, validates the accessorials, and posts the allocation against the cost centers that received the goods — across stores, DCs, or both.
Autopilot ready
Seasonal surges

The platform absorbs your peak.

Black Friday through January. Back-to-school. Spring and summer transitions. Invoice volume in retail does not arrive evenly across the year. Most AP teams either hire temporary headcount or accept that the backlog grows through the peak and gets cleared in January. Listra handles the surge without adding people. Auto-approval thresholds can be tuned for the peak. Vendor statement reconciliation can be scheduled to run after the surge clears. The audit trail does not change.

How it runs

Copilot first. Autopilot when you're ready.

Most retailers start in Copilot. Listra investigates every exception, gathers the evidence, recommends a resolution against your policy, and waits for your AP team to approve. Once the audit trail proves consistent on a given exception type, you move that type to Autopilot at your pace.

Typically migrates first

Autopilot in weeks

  • Partial shipments
  • Freight audits
  • Duplicate detection
  • Multi-tier routing
Migrates as confidence grows

Autopilot over months

  • Promotional pricing
  • Missing store receipts
  • Emergency non-PO routing
Often stays in Copilot

Always-review exceptions

  • Vendor allowance disputes
  • Ambiguous deductions
  • Anything you choose
What changes

Your team works on vendor relationships, not invoice triage.

The work that used to take twenty to forty minutes per exception — opening systems, calling the store, cross-referencing the PO and the promo agreement, drafting the vendor email, waiting for a reply, documenting the resolution — takes seconds. The backlog at month-end is what shipped recently, not what has been waiting for someone to investigate.

Vendor inquiry volume drops as Listra closes the loop directly with the vendor on most exceptions.
Co-op and markdown money get applied at the time of payment instead of leaking into uncollected credits.
Cycle time stops being driven by the speed of the AP investigation, even during peak.
Accruals at month-end reflect actual liabilities rather than estimates of what is still under investigation.
Every resolution is documented with the evidence and the policy rule that was applied, so audit prep is already done.
Get started

Bring us a holiday week of invoices.

In a 30-minute demo, we run your actual retail exception types against the platform: partial shipments split across stores, promotional pricing variances, vendor allowances and chargebacks, store-level emergency spend, freight allocations. You see the resolution path, the policy logic, and the evidence pack.

Book a demo