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Nerve Centre KPIs · Audit Profile · Sentiment Settings Costco SIP is the SFTP-based EDI feed channel suppliers use to manage their Costco wholesale relationship. The audit covers SFTP connectivity (the AIOS-IP-allowlist prerequisite is the most common day-1 blocker), order feed reliability (did the daily PO drop land overnight?), ASN compliance (every missed ASN is a chargeback under Costco’s supplier rules), item- master sync drift (the source of “delisted” surprises), and cross-channel comparisons against DTC + 3PL + Jira siblings to surface pricing-parity risks, 3PL SLA isolation, and chargeback-dispute escalation queues.

What this audit checks

Authentication & access

  • SFTP connection succeeds within 30s (timeout = AIOS egress IP not on Costco allowlist - file allowlist request with supplier-portal admin)
  • Auth method present (password OR private_key) - both empty = config error
  • known_hosts_fingerprint matches server (production hardening - defeats MITM)
  • base_path/inbox is readable AND base_path/outbox is writable
  • Username + base_path resolve to the merchant’s expected drop folder (no cross-tenant leakage)

Feed reliability

  • Last successful inbound parse within 36h on a working day (>36h = either Costco stopped dropping OR our pickup stopped)
  • Daily PO drop lands by 7am UK (Costco’s typical cadence is 2am UK)
  • Inbound parse-error rate <2% rolling 7d (per-file errors signal a Costco envelope-format change)
  • Outbound files ACKed within 6h of drop (un-ACKed = Costco can’t read our envelope)
  • File-volume anomaly: daily count within 2σ of 30d baseline

ASN compliance

  • On-time ASN rate >=95% (below = scorecard penalty)
  • POs missing ASN past ship_by (any open count = active chargeback risk)
  • Late ASN burst: >2 in 24h (fulfilment-side breakage)
  • ASN ACK rejection rate <1% (rejected ASNs don’t count as on-time)
  • ASN-PO mismatch: ASN sent for a PO Costco didn’t drop (envelope error)

Item-master sync

  • Items delisted this week (any > 0 = direct shelf-loss; chase reasons within 24h)
  • Items pending review >0 (case-pack mismatch / GTIN error / label issue)
  • Sync error count 7d (each rejection blocks the related items from updating)
  • Field drift: description / case-pack / cost-per-unit divergent between supplier system and Costco catalogue
  • Item-master file last sent within rolling cadence (typically weekly; gap risks staleness)

Financial reconciliation

  • Chargeback risk 30d > $5K (recoverable margin if disputed in window)
  • Payments overdue past Costco’s 30-day net term
  • Invoice-to-PO gap (un-invoiced fulfilled POs)
  • Top deduction reason codes (systemic vs one-off)

Cross-channel: pricing, 3PL & escalation (the killer area)

  • Costco unit-cost <70% of DTC list price for matched SKUs (MAP-compliance + margin signal)
  • Costco PO ship-by SLA via ShipBob (isolates 3PL performance from internal warehouse)
  • Open Jira tickets referencing Costco POs or chargebacks (ageing escalation queue = unrecovered margin)
  • DTC stockout AND open Costco PO for the same SKU (allocation conflict)

Severity thresholds

SignalWarnCritical
sftp_consecutive_failures13
hours_since_last_inbound_workday2436
hours_since_last_outbound_ack1224
on_time_asn_rate_pct9795
pos_missing_asn_count15
late_asn_burst_24h_count13
fill_rate_pct9998
items_delisted_7d_count13
items_pending_review_count15
sync_error_count_7d15
field_drift_count515
chargeback_value_30d_usd10005000
pricing_parity_violation_count15
shipbob_costco_on_time_pct9695
costco_jira_aged_open_count13

Data sources

  • GET sftp://{host}{base_path}/inbox - List inbound feed files (POs, item-master, return-auths, ACKs)
  • GET sftp://{host}{base_path}/outbox - List pending/un-ACKed outbound files (resilience: re-send on transient failure)
  • PUT sftp://{host}{base_path}/outbox/{filename} - Drop outbound ASN / invoice / item-master-update
  • GET sftp://{host}{base_path}/archive - Historical files for reconciliation + audit replay