If a supplier owed you $50,000, you'd invoice them.

Co-op funds are the same money. Most distributors just never send the invoice.

Industry research puts unused co-op funds at roughly 40% of what's available — about $14 billion a year.

That's not marketing budget that went unspent. For a distributor, it's a receivable that never got invoiced — money already earned by the products you stock and sell.

Four numbers tell you whether you're capturing what you're owed:

→ Utilization rate on confirmed supplier budgets

→ Unclaimed dollars, as a dollar figure (percentages don't get attention in leadership meetings; dollar figures do)

→ Funds expiring in the next 30/60/90 days

→ What lapsed unclaimed last period

You can't collect a number you can't see.