Credits at the door, drafted as credit memos against the right invoice lines.

At the door, the driver and the kitchen settle what didn't arrive right: cases short, a dented case refused, produce sent back, a frozen case that came off the truck soft, the wrong item picked. It goes on the delivery ticket, sometimes with a photo. Back at the warehouse, someone on your credit desk works out which invoice line each note belongs to, whether the case came back, and what the credit should be.

For the test, AI reads copies of those tickets, photos and route check-in sheets and drafts each credit memo line by line: invoice, item, quantity, reason and amount, at the price the customer was billed. Every note it can't tie to an invoice line, a pick or a returned case goes on a separate list for whoever issues credits.

The signed ticket starts the credit. In the South Dakota Department of Education's template for school prime vendor contracts, the site supervisor checks items, quantities and condition, signs each delivery ticket and notes shortages and damage on it, initialed by both the supervisor and the driver, and credit invoices are due within a week of the school's notice. Miami-Dade County Public Schools warns its kitchen managers that a vendor won't credit damaged or missing product once the slip is signed with nothing noted. So the draft starts from the ticket's own words and initials.

Temperature refusals follow published numbers. Section 3-202.11 of the FDA Food Code, 2026 edition, has refrigerated time/temperature control for safety food received at 41°F or below unless a law for a food such as milk or shellfish sets its own figure, raw eggs in equipment holding the air at 45°F or less, cooked food received hot at 135°F or above, and food shipped frozen still frozen, none of it showing earlier temperature abuse. The Institute of Child Nutrition's USDA-funded receiving fact sheet names large ice crystals or liquid at the bottom of the carton as signs of thawing. The draft carries the kitchen's reading beside any truck temperature record you send, and never rules on who was right.

Damage found later is a different credit. Section 3-202.15 wants packages to arrive in good condition, and the Food Code's annex says hard swells and flippers can mean a can lost its seal, adding that suspect cans must be returned, not offered for sale. Damage found after the truck left takes another path: Miami-Dade's procedure has the kitchen set the product aside for pickup and send the invoice number, delivery date, case count, code or lot numbers and a photo. Washington's school nutrition office asks sites receiving USDA Foods for photos showing the label, date or code, size and scale. The draft keeps a call-in apart from a refusal and lists the evidence that came with it.

Produce runs on a federal clock. For fresh fruits and vegetables delivered by truck, the PACA regulations at 7 CFR 46.2(cc) allow no more than 8 hours, once the receiver is told of arrival and can inspect, to give notice of rejection. Under 46.2(dd), unloading, or silence past that point, counts as acceptance, though acceptance doesn't end a claim for damages. Payment for purchased produce is due 10 days after acceptance under 46.2(aa), and 7 CFR 46.46 caps agreed terms at 30 days for trust eligibility. So the draft times each produce complaint against the delivery, keeping a refusal on the ticket apart from a complaint the next morning. Which rules apply to a sale is for your team and its counsel.

Shorts and mispicks are settled at the warehouse. A line marked short may never have been picked, may have ridden back on the truck, or may have gone to the next stop. A mispick needs a credit for the wrong item and the right item still owed. North Dakota's school prime vendor template has the distributor issue credit and arrange returns for miss-shipped products, and label approved substitutions on the invoice under a separate item code, so an approved sub isn't taken for a mispick. The draft checks each note against the pick record and the route's check-in. Your reviewer watches for the costly misses: one credit issued twice, a credit at a price other than the one billed, a refused case that never came back.

When your reviewer says yes against the success criteria, tickets from new routes go through the same drafting for about 30 days.

Each credit memo is issued by someone on your credit desk, never by the draft. Customers and drivers hear only from your team, and every listed mismatch stays with a person until they settle it.

Whatever comes after that month is a separate decision with its own price.