Scheme circular
The brand's written announcement of a trade scheme — the period, eligible products, slab table, and benefit. It is the 'promised' leg of every scheme reconciliation: the document the credit note must be checked against.
A scheme circular is the brand's written announcement of a trade scheme to its dealers: which products qualify, over what period, at what slabs, and what the benefit is — a per-unit rebate, a percentage, price protection, or free goods. It may arrive as a PDF, an email, or a portal notice, and every brand formats it differently.
For reconciliation, the circular is the source of truth for what was promised. A credit note can only be verified against the circular that earned it: recompute the promised amount exactly as the circular defines it, then compare with what the brand actually credited.
The most common failure is simply losing track — circulars scattered across inboxes and portals, superseded mid-period, or never filed. A scheme that is not recorded is a claim that is never checked, which is why capturing circulars is step one of dealer scheme reconciliation.