What is K12 Distributor Certification?
February 2009
Distributors that participate in Indirect Sales Discount, also known as Net Off Invoice, programs are required to provide invoice data to your processing manufacturers. Through K12Foodservice.com, manufacturers use this data to account for the discounts schools/ RA's receive off-invoice. They are then able to draw down the appropriate commodity balances, and report usage to State Agencies and USDA. The same electronic invoice data is also used to calculate the reimbursement from the manufacturer to the distributor for valid discounts which the distributor has provided to participating in the commodity program.

K12Foodservice.com understands that your commodity dollars are just that - dollars; valuable financial assets that should be managed with the same level of care and attention as other school foodservice funds. When invoice data is received from your distributors, it is validated to make sure that the product was actually received by the correct district with the correct discount. K12 also works proactively to disallow invoice data when product is not received, when ineligible products are sold, or when commodity allowances have been depleted.

K12 needs to be confident that the invoice data distributors transmit is as accurate as possible. Therefore, we require commercial distributors that desire a relationship with K12Foodservice.com, to be able to track commodity values within their own internal invoicing system. To ensure confidence that the data is accurate, the K12 Certification program confirms whether or not a distributor can:
  1. Set up allocation banks by manufacturer and commodity
  2. Assign discount values to eligible commodity products
  3. Draw down customer banks when eligible commodity products are purchased
  4. Transmit invoice data files on a daily or weekly basis
  5. Prevent a commodity discount from being applied when there is not enough allocation in the customer's bank to support the purchase
  6. Monitor the K12Foodservice.com website for changes and updates
Manufacturers using K12Foodservice.com may not assign schools to non-certified distributors. Sometimes manufacturers have no choice but to deny their customers' requests to use a different distributor if the new distributor is not certified. Manufacturers also need to know to what level their distributors can accurately account and apply for eligible discounts. All 140+ certified distributors have recently been divided into three levels of certification, Basic, Standard, and Premier, based on their ability to accommodate one or more advanced program features. To see a complete list of certified and "testing" distributors, click here.

K12 Certification is available to any interested commercial distributor. Since K12Foodservice.com is web-based, there is no software to buy or install and K12 provides free training and distributor support. If your distributor is not certified have them contact K12 Services at 301-251-5515 to learn more!
Is Your Commodity Usage on Target?

Look at your "Monthly Usage Summary" to make sure your usage is on target. This summary can be found by selecting the second icon in the top right corner of the manufacturers balance table.

Here you will be able to view usage for each commodity by month, in pounds, dollars, and as a percent of the total allocation for that commodity. It is suggested to aim for a monthly usage of approximately 10%. This will allow for appropriate commodity usage throughout the school year.

the "Monthly Usage Summary" is also useful when planning your diversions for next school year, as you can easily view whether you diverted too much, or too little in the current year. This will allow you adjust your diversions to best suit your needs for the upcoming school year.

DON'T FORGET TO COMPLETE YOUR SALES
VERIFICATION AND REVIEW YOUR ACCOUNTS

If you are having trouble logging into K12foodservice.com please contacts us at 301-251-5515 or email us at info@k12servicesinc.com