Walmart’s Accounts Payable Disputes Portal, usually shortened to APDP, replaced the third-party Direct Commerce Inc. (DCI) system in 2021 and now lives inside Retail Link under the Apps tab (SPS Commerce). It is the channel Goods-For-Resale suppliers use to dispute accounts-payable deductions — and it is also the channel where the most disputes get lost to process mistakes rather than to the merits of the claim.
This walkthrough covers what APDP actually handles, the filing sequence, the documentation each ship method requires, and what to do when a dispute comes back denied.
What APDP actually covers
APDP is built specifically for accounts-payable deductions on Goods-For-Resale purchase orders. Suppliers who sell on a Goods-Not-For-Resale basis file through their primary supplier partner instead, not directly in APDP (SPS Commerce).
Named categories APDP handles include shortage claims (fewer units received than shipped), documented price differences and PO-versus-invoice price differences, substitution overcharges, concealed shortages, goods billed but not shipped, promotional and returns-related discount deductions, carton shortages where the freight bill was signed short, cartons marked as damaged, and defective or destroyed merchandise allowances (SPS Commerce).
Just as important is what APDP will not take. It does not handle Post Payment audit deductions or Accounts Receivable deductions — those route through separate processes entirely (SPS Commerce; SPS Commerce). Certain returns-related deductions are also excluded when the purchase order flows through a returns center, including freight on returned merchandise, labor and handling/repackaging charges, several merchandise-returned codes, and the returned-goods handling charge; a DSDC/ASN allowance deduction is instead handled through your Walmart supply chain representative, and a grocery billback allowance is disputed through HighRadius rather than APDP (SPS Commerce). Filing one of these into APDP by mistake is one of the more common ways suppliers waste a filing cycle.
Before you file: check APIS first
The Accounts Payable Inquiry System (APIS) is a companion Retail Link application that lets a supplier view payment, invoice and claim data before ever opening a dispute (SPS Commerce). Cross-checking APIS data against your own invoice and PO records before filing is worth the extra step: a mismatch between what your records show and what Walmart’s system shows is one of the most common reasons a dispute gets rejected, and it is far cheaper to catch before submission than after a denial.
Filing a dispute, step by step
- Log into Retail Link and open APDP from the Apps tab.
- Search for the deduction by claim number, invoice number, purchase order, deduction code, or vendor number, and confirm the claim against your APIS record.
- Choose the dispute view — claim-based or invoice-based — and select “Create Dispute.”
- Enter the dispute details: the deduction code, the disputed amount, a written description of why the deduction is invalid, and the freight or ship method that applied to the shipment.
- Attach documentation matched to the claim type and ship method (see below). Files must be PDF, JPEG or PNG, up to 10MB each (SPS Commerce).
- Submit. A saved-but-unsubmitted dispute is held as a draft and automatically expires after 14 days if it is not submitted (SPS Commerce).
- Wait for Walmart’s review. Once submitted, a dispute generally cannot be edited unless Walmart returns it to you for clarification (SPS Commerce).
The documentation each ship method needs
APDP’s evidence requirements are ship-method-specific, and attaching the wrong document type for the ship method is a routine cause of denial (SPS Commerce):
| Ship method | What the dispute needs attached |
|---|---|
| Prepaid | A signed facility freight stamp confirming receipt |
| Prepaid Dropped Trailer | The dropped-trailer stamp plus a bill of lading listing the purchase orders on the trailer |
| Collect | A carrier-signed bill of lading listing the purchase orders, plus the seal number for full truckload shipments |
| Small Parcel | Individual proof-of-delivery signature pages for each affected shipment |
Across all ship methods, a packing list or receiving record that supports the disputed quantity strengthens the claim regardless of which specific stamp or signature is required.
Reading the dispute status dashboard
The APDP dashboard shows up to the 5,000 most recent disputes, 20 per page, filterable by vendor number, username, invoice, claim code, purchase order or date, and exportable to CSV (SPS Commerce). Each dispute carries one of these statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not submitted. Expires automatically after 14 days. |
| Walmart Research | Under active review by Walmart. |
| Supplier Action | Walmart needs clarification or additional documentation. The supplier has 7 days to respond before the request closes. |
| Approved / Partially Approved | The dispute succeeded in full or in part. Approved amounts appear in a future remittance. |
| Rejected | Denied. Can potentially be refiled if new evidence is available. |
| Withdrawn / Expired | Closed without a decision, either by the supplier or because a deadline passed. |
The 7-day Supplier Action window deserves particular attention. It is short, it is not extended for being missed, and a dispute that sits in Supplier Action past the deadline closes automatically — not because the claim was weak, but because nobody answered in time.
Why disputes get auto-denied, and what to do after a denial
The recurring causes of denial are procedural far more often than substantive: the wrong deduction code was disputed, the ship-method-specific document was missing or did not match, the claim data did not reconcile against APIS, or the 7-day Supplier Action window was missed and the case closed by default.
After a denial, review the reason recorded in the dispute detail pane. If the underlying evidence still supports the claim and there is new documentation that was not part of the original submission — a receiving record that was located afterward, a corrected BOL, an acknowledgement Walmart had not matched to the claim — the same deduction can often be redisputed. Refiling with the same, already-rejected documentation rarely changes the outcome.
How long you actually have
Published guidance describes a standard filing window of up to 24 months for most AP deductions, with a tighter 12-month window specifically for shortage deductions (SPS Commerce). Separately, supplier support documentation confirms that once more than two years have passed from the original claim date, a deduction can no longer be disputed at all (SupplyPike) — consistent with the 24-month figure and worth treating as a hard backstop rather than a target.
Two internal deadlines matter as much as the outer window: a draft that sits unsubmitted for 14 days expires, and a Supplier Action request that sits unanswered for 7 days closes. A supplier that tracks only the multi-year outer window and ignores these short internal clocks will still lose disputes to timing.
The mistakes that cost the most disputes
- Filing a non-AP deduction into APDP. Post-audit and Accounts Receivable deductions belong in a different process entirely, and APDP will not resolve them.
- Attaching the wrong ship-method document. A Collect shipment needs a carrier-signed BOL with the seal number, not a Prepaid facility stamp, and vice versa.
- Skipping the APIS cross-check. Data mismatches between a supplier’s own records and Walmart’s system are one of the most common, avoidable causes of rejection.
- Missing the 7-day Supplier Action window. This closes the case regardless of how strong the underlying evidence is.
- Letting a draft expire. Fourteen days is not long once documentation has to be gathered from a 3PL or carrier.
See how these categories map onto Walmart’s broader deduction and OTIF landscape in our Walmart OTIF fines guide, or compare Walmart’s code structure against other retailers in the retailer deduction code glossary.
Frequently asked questions
What is Walmart's APDP?
The Accounts Payable Disputes Portal, a Retail Link application under the Apps tab that Goods-For-Resale suppliers use to dispute accounts-payable deductions. It replaced the third-party DCI system in 2021.
How long do I have to file an APDP dispute?
Published guidance describes a window of up to 24 months for most AP deductions and 12 months specifically for shortage deductions, with disputes no longer possible at all once two years have passed from the original claim date.
What happens if Walmart asks for more information on a dispute?
The dispute moves to Supplier Action status, and the supplier has 7 days to respond with the requested clarification or documentation before the request closes automatically.
Can a rejected APDP dispute be refiled?
Often yes, if genuinely new evidence supports the claim. Refiling the same documentation that was already rejected rarely produces a different outcome.
Can post-audit deductions be disputed in APDP?
No. APDP is limited to accounts-payable deductions. Post Payment audit deductions and Accounts Receivable deductions are handled through separate processes.
Sources
Every figure in this article is drawn from the publicly available sources below. Retailer programmes, fee schedules and dispute windows change; confirm current terms in the retailer’s own supplier portal before acting.