The first goal is to separate the coupons by manufacturer. One system places scannable coupons face up on a conveyor belt, where they are moved along under a scanner that reads the UPC codes and tallies the amounts, then adds up the total value of each manufacturers' coupons. Damaged coupons that can't be scanned have to be sorted by hand and added up separately. The other system is to do the whole thing by hand. The clearinghouse then sends all the sorted coupons with an invoice to the manufacturer.
Several things can happen here.
The manufacturer might reimburse the clearinghouse for the amount of the invoice, and the clearinghouse will send a check to the store for the amount of the coupons. Or the manufacturer will send a check directly to the store and the store then pays the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is paid a certain amount per coupon by the store, plus shipping and handling. The whole cycle takes about a month. Inc. All rights reserved.