top of page
Search

UNFI Deduction Pitfalls: What to Watch for and How to Fight Back

Mistakes to avoid

If you’re a CPG supplier working with UNFI, you know the drill: you send the shipment, you send the invoice, and you wait for payment. But somewhere between “invoiced” and “paid,” things get messy.


Suddenly, your remittance comes in—and it’s short. Discounts, allowances, vague fees, and deductions you didn’t see coming are quietly eating away at your margin. And if you’re like most suppliers, you’re too busy filling the next order to chase every line item.

Here’s the problem: a large portion of UNFI deductions are avoidable—or outright invalid. In 2025, we’re seeing a rise in:

  • Early payment discount errors – Discounts taken even when payments were late.

  • Duplicate deductions – A promo deduction applied twice or coded under two different reasons.

  • Vague, unsubstantiated chargebacks – A fee with no clear documentation attached.


A Fictional Example (But Very Real Scenario)

Imagine a small, family-owned granola brand doing $3M annually through UNFI. In Q1, they shipped 50 pallets to multiple distribution centers. When the payments arrived, $22,000 was missing—buried across dozens of small deductions:

  • $7,500 in “early-pay” discounts, even though UNFI paid five days late

  • $8,000 in “promo” chargebacks—no matching paperwork found

  • $6,500 in various compliance and freight fees, some duplicated


Left unchecked, that’s nearly 1% of annual revenue gone in a single quarter.


How to Fight Back

  1. Audit every remittance – Don’t assume your ERP will flag errors.

  2. Categorize deductions – Split expected vs. invalid to prioritize disputes.

  3. Document everything – Match POs, BOLs, and proof-of-delivery to chargebacks.

  4. Leverage automation – AI-powered tools and expert recovery partners can identify and dispute invalid deductions far faster than a manual team.


The takeaway: If you sell through UNFI, deduction management isn’t optional—it’s survival. Those “small” line items are often the difference between hitting your margin target and bleeding cash.

bottom of page