Receipt validation for rebate and cashback claims
Receipt validation is the step that decides whether a submitted proof of purchase supports the claim attached to it. Done by hand it is slow and inconsistent. Done automatically it is the difference between a rebate paid the same day and a rebate paid in two months.
What gets checked
A photographed receipt has to answer several questions before a claim can be paid. Which products were bought. Where and when. At what price. Whether the retailer and the date fall inside the promotion. Whether this exact image has been submitted before.
SondarLogic reads the whole receipt, not just the line the claim depends on, and checks the extracted detail against what the claimant typed on the form. Where those two disagree, the disagreement is the finding.
The four outcomes
Every claim returns one of four results, and each one carries the reason it was reached. That reason is what makes a decision defensible later, and what lets a brand answer a complaint without reopening the file.
- Approved. The claim qualifies and the reward is released.
- Rejected. The claim does not qualify, with the specific rule it failed.
- Manual review. The claim is an edge case and goes to a person on our team with a full audit trail, not to the brand.
- Resubmission requested. The photo is unreadable, so the claimant is asked for a clearer one automatically. Nothing is auto denied for a bad photo.
What it catches
The claims that should not be paid tend to arrive in recognisable shapes. The same receipt submitted twice under two names. A receipt edited to change a date or a product. A screenshot of somebody else's claim. A receipt from a retailer that was never part of the promotion. A purchase made a week after the promotion closed.
All of those are caught before payment rather than found in a reconciliation months later. We describe what the engine catches rather than how it decides, because a published method is a method somebody can work around.
Receipts that are not supermarket receipts
A great deal of promotional claiming happens outside grocery. Veterinary invoices, optical dispensing receipts, tire and service invoices, contractor invoices, dealer paperwork. These are longer, less standardised, and often carry a named individual and a clinic or branch on the page.
The engine is built to read them as well as a till roll, and to treat what is on them with the care that information deserves. That also means a brand never needs to send us its own claimant records to get a programme running.
Common questions
How long does automated receipt validation take?
Under ten seconds from the submitted image to a decision with its reason attached.
What happens if a receipt photo is blurry?
The claimant gets an automated, brand styled request to submit a clearer photo. Claims are never denied for image quality alone, and a legitimate resubmission is not treated as a duplicate.
Can it read receipts other than grocery till receipts?
Yes. Veterinary invoices, optical receipts, tire and automotive service invoices, dealer paperwork and contractor invoices are all handled. Those documents are longer and less standardised than a till roll, and they are common in the categories that run rebate programmes.
What happens to claims the engine cannot decide?
They route to manual review and are handled by a person on the SondarLogic side, with the full audit trail and a recommendation. The brand does not inherit a review queue, and manual review is included in the per claim rate rather than billed separately.
Do you need our customer data to validate claims?
No. Claims arrive from the claimant through the submission portal. A brand never has to hand over its own claimant or customer records to run a programme.