What the documents look like
Dealer rebate calculation happens after sales are completed. The work centers on policy definitions and financial offset, and it draws on ERP sales records, dealer remittances, contract ledgers and the finance system. The documents handled day to day include rebate policies, volume achievement tables, reconciliation statements and red-letter invoices. The most time-consuming steps are checking the achievement basis, deducting returned goods amounts and offsetting against issued invoices.
In order fulfillment and after-sales question handling, channel sales staff and dealer finance staff ask whether a given order met the rebate conditions, or whether a period's reconciled amount already includes a deduction for returned goods. The retrieval step needs to return original text from these documents that shares the same subject, the same period and the same field as the question. Rebate calculation differs from inventory replenishment in that it occurs after the sale, so the core issue is the policy wording and the financial treatment.
Constraints at the retrieval step
The knowledge base search node can link one or more knowledge bases that use the same vector model. Search runs against the whole library; a collection only serves to classify and manage data and does not affect search results. Semantic search, full-text search and hybrid search are chosen according to the type of question. Hybrid search merges multiple result paths through RRF. When result reranking is used, the rerank score is a value from 0 to 1 and filtering can be based on that score. The reference limit is measured in tokens. The minimum relevance value takes effect only in semantic search or when result reranking is used. Question optimization performs coreference resolution and question expansion.
Retrieval and similarity scores do not carry out authorization decisions. Whether a rebate holds and whether a reconciliation is confirmed must be checked on the business side. A pending request is not an approval, and an offered option is not an execution.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample. Source text one: a dealer's July 2024 volume achievement table states "cumulative remittance as of July 31 was 4.8 million, returns 200,000, net remittance 4.6 million." Source text two: the rebate policy for the same period states "a quarterly net remittance reaching 4.5 million qualifies for a 2% rebate." Source text three: the reconciliation statement states "July reconciled amount 4.6 million, status is awaiting dealer confirmation." Draft sentence to be judged: "The dealer's July rebate is confirmed and can be offset by invoice." The check compares subject, period, field values and the reconciliation status. An awaiting-confirmation status does not constitute a completed confirmation.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration or check item | Value or practice on this page | Basis and explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Linked knowledge bases | Rebate policy library, volume achievement library, reconciliation library | The three must use the same vector model; verify the identifier of each and exclude any that do not match |
| Search mode | Try semantic search and hybrid search separately on the sample question | Compare by test question; do not assume one mode suits all materials |
| Reference limit | Hypothetical trial starting point of 2000 tokens | Chosen because the sample contains several policy and reconciliation passages; compare against 1000 and 3000 for content completeness |
| Minimum relevance | Hypothetical trial starting point of 0.5 | Label relevant and irrelevant samples first, then adjust; takes effect only in semantic search or when result reranking is used |
| Question optimization | Enabled for follow-up questions phrased as "this rebate" | Used for coreference resolution and question expansion; check whether the subject was altered incorrectly |
| Result reranking | Used when a model is available and it is enabled in settings | Rerank score is 0 to 1 and can be used for filtering; when not enabled, this result path is not produced |
Three common errors
- Treating the reconciliation status "awaiting dealer confirmation" as a completed confirmation. The input is source text three above; the comparison is between the status field value "awaiting confirmation" and the draft sentence's "confirmed"; the observable result is that the two do not agree and the draft sentence is not supported.
- Using a similarity score in place of an authorization decision. The input is the reference content returned by retrieval; the comparison is whether the reference comes from a target library the requester has access to; the observable result is that a high or low score has no bearing on permission, and content beyond one's access still has to be excluded manually.
- Linking libraries that use different vector models. The input is the vector model identifier of two libraries; the comparison is whether the identifiers match; the observable result is that different identifiers mean the libraries cannot be linked together. Record the identifier difference at that point and do not run a cross-model retrieval to compare missed recalls.
How to verify the setup
- Use sample source texts one and two to check the achievement basis. The input is the original text of the volume achievement table and the rebate policy; the comparison is between net remittance of 4.6 million and the policy threshold of 4.5 million; the condition is met when retrieval returns both passages and the numeric fields agree, and the rebate rate in the draft sentence can be traced to the policy text.
- Use sample source text three to check the status. The input is the original reconciliation statement; the comparison is between "awaiting confirmation" and the draft sentence's "confirmed"; the condition is met when retrieval returns that status field and the judgment is recorded as unsupported and pending verification, without outputting a confirmed conclusion.
- Use an explicit paper input of an empty array to check downstream handling. The input is reference content of []; the comparison is whether the downstream node continues along a path whose length may be zero; the condition is met when the path runs through and produces no reference. Do not claim that retrieval of a fictional rule necessarily returns an empty array.