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Terms & Conditions

Frequently Asked Qustions

Who Owns iControl?

iControl Started in 2005 as a division for a large DSD company, Current Companies. In 2009, Current was sold to Hudson News, a wholly-owned subsidiary of international retailer conglomerate Dufry AG. Our core business is providing the technology, know-how, infrastructure, and resources to facilitate Scan Based Trading and the automation of data exchange, primarily for DSD, on a large scale. iControl currently provides services in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, approaching 30,000 stores participating across nearly 100 retail banners, to over 3,500 supplier partners.
For more information, please go to www.icontroldsd.com

What is iControl?

Our core business is providing the technology, know-how, infrastructure, and resources to facilitate Scan Based Trading and the automation of data exchange, primarily for DSD, on a large scale.

iControl provides retailers and their newspaper vendors a cutting-edge, definitive, web-enabled solution that comprehensively encompasses all aspects of the category, from item-file set-up and maintenance, to allocation management, efficiencies, sell-out prevention, promotions, and of course, billing consolidation. With 30,000 active accounts across grocery, drug, convenience and other classes of trade, iControl is an industry leader.

The system is designed to accept and process information both from the retailer at the point of sale, and from publishers and distributors (in/out records, as verified by stores), and automatically compare them for differences.

Those differences are carefully analyzed and aggressively acted upon to remedy and correct, in order to ensure honesty and integrity in both directions.

Why Do Retailers Need iControl

The DSD categories are so vast, so complex, and involve so many moving parts from so many vendors with so many intricacies, that it takes a full-time dedicated effort to manage the categories. Through economies of scale, iControl can, and does.

Primarily, iControl is an Accounts Payable Outsourcing Solution, saving the retailer the cost, time and effort of having to reconcile thousands of invoices for which they have little internal comparative data for loss prevention purposes. iControl also helps the retailer eliminate cash payouts and inventory carrying costs, track perpetual inventory, settle shrink, manage pricebook, manage promotions, and engage in continuous replenishment programs and other initiatives -- all in one platform, Harmony by iControl(TM).

Combined with the ability to correctly scan the right product at the right store for the right price, and therefore book the sales, iControl brings an immediate tangible benefit to retailers of being able to clearly see what's happening in their stores, from the micro to the macro level. A retailer with an iControl program knows who delivers to each store, what they bring in, what it costs them, and how it sells – in real time. Without process consolidation, major retailers can't even apply DSD sales (like newspapers) to their financial statements, because they don't have the universe of UPCs properly set-up to recognize the sales. As a result, sales are scanned as miscellaneous. This becomes a major shrink liability to the retailer.

What Services Does iControl Provide the Retailer?

Function Outsourcing


Accounts Payable
Pricebook and Item File Maintenance
Promotion Management
Perpetual Inventory Tracking
Shrink Settlement
Continuous Replenishment
Vendor File Maintenance 		Data Management


Centralization/Consolidation
Data Warehousing
Data Archiving 		Analysis


Exception Reporting
Growth & Development
Business Intelligence
Analytics
Subscription-based exception reporting
Fraud Prevention

What are the Benefits of iControl for Publishers/Distributors?

The primary benefit of using iControl for retailers and suppliers is that the iControl program is controlled pay-on-scan, as opposed to an unmitigated SBT program without built-in checks and balances. In iControl, POS data is captured and analyzed, while suppliers are encouraged to submit their own records of in/out.

Our fully-automated discrepancy reconciliation process makes resolving cost and shrink discrepancies fair and simple. The iControl system will automatically identify them and handle the process from start to finish. Once we identify a difference owed to you, and verify it, payment for it can be automatic.

Other benefits include a spectacular on-line sales analysis system, included at no charge. iControl also sends daily subscription alerts detailing exceptions.

Why Should the Retailer Be Willing to Pay For Discrepancies?

How Do I register to Participate?

Registration is a simple process:

1) Contact us at www.icontroldsd.com/contact

How Do I Get Paid?

Depending on the product that you deliver, you can be paid daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.  The default payment is weekly. If you’d like another payment frequency, please email us at help@icontroldsd.com

What Does it Cost Suppliers to Participate?

There is no cost to publishers or distributors to participate in the program.

Newspaper participants who submit their sales records manually, by either fax or phone, will be subject to a $1.00 per invoice processing and data entry fee.

What is the SV/DR Process?

The SV/DR process, also known as DCR, is the manner by which manufacturers and distributors can submit information based on an in-store audit, and request payment for any differences between the POS and the physical evidence from the store. For more information on this process, please contact us at help@icontroldsd.com

How Do I Know the SV/DR Process Won’t Be Eliminated for Newspapers?

iControl is committed to participating only in programs that do not unfairly and collectively punish newspaper participants. However, each retailer will have the right to define the extent of the SV/DR component of its program.

In business, as long as two unrelated parties conduct business with each other, and short of absolute trust between the parties, reconciliation must always occur as checks & balances:

  • the retailer will always, rightfully, seek to assess its quality of execution and the accuracy of the invoice by referring to its receiving and cash registers records
  • the supplier will always, rightfully, continue to seek to reconcile the payment to the physical inventory it finds in the store after making the delivery

Newspapers are a unique product, delivered daily to thousands of outlets by thousands of loosely affiliated vendors, during non-receiving hours, and left unattended by door-fronts. Newspapers carry a low retail price, multiple UPC, and multiple costs and retail prices (even in the same geographical area).

Newspapers require hands-on management!

The reason why iControl is unique in its reconciliation solution is that it offers a platform that reconciles these extremely complicated, frequent (daily delivery) and low margin activities in a seamless process.

I have Concerns Over Third Party Involvement

• I prefer to work directly with the retailer
iControl is an AP and data analysis system, not a category manager. You should keep working directly with the retailer as we are only here to help implement!
• I prefer to be paid by the retailer directly
iControl was hired as an outsourcing firm for AP and the funds are always from the retailer. Outsourcing functions that add value is something done widely.
• I’ve had bad experience with Pay on Scan (SBT)
We are committed to running programs that do not collectively punish, and where a robust, seamless checks & balances system is a core component.
• My contractors are used to being paying quickly (often by cash)
The retailer is not obligated to pay cash. That being factored-in, iControl pays in 10-14 days (versus 45+ days for overwhelmed retailer AP offices)
• Concern about the confidentiality of my data
iControl offers confidentiality and non-compete agreements
• OK… but why can’t the retailer just do this on its own?

Why Would A Retailer Outsource AP & Analysis?

What Information Does iControl Send Me? What’s on the Web?

If you are an iControl registered participant, you will receive the following from us automatically, without any action required on your part:

  •   Weekly summary of sales, by store, according to POS (optional, info only)
  •   With every check, a remittance advice detailing by-store activity and payouts
  •   For payments made for discrepancies, clear identification on the document

You may also access iControl Interactive Reporting to constantly monitor the goings-on with your account from all perspectives – draw, sales, payments, performance reporting, etc.

How Hard will it be to Reconcile Payments from iControl?

We will be paying you for scan sales no matter what. If we find discrepancies that you are due payment for, we will work with the retailer on your behalf.

If you send us your newspaper data weekly, your payment will reflect both sales by scan (POS) and sales by verification (SV/DR).

If we receive the SV/DR file later than the 10th day after the delivery week, payment for POS and SV/DR may come on separate checks. This may be more cumbersome for some participants.

We now offer a new feature! If you prefer that we hold the POS payment until we complete SV/DR, and always send you one combined check, please contact us at help@icontroldsd.com If you sign up for this option, we will mail you a check immediately upon reconciling a week's POS and SV/DR. If you fail to submit an SV/DR file within 30 days, the prescribed time-limit, we will automatically issue payment for the POS sales for that time period.

If I Have Questions or Problems Whom Do I contact?

You can also call us toll-free, 24/7, at 800-768-4767

Or By Mail:

iControl Systems USA, LLC.

3919 National Drive, 2nd Floor

Burtonsville, MD 20866