Controlled settlements process decreases outstanding deductions by 56%

Business challenge

Despite settlements and deductions being common place in the Consumer Goods industry, a majority of manufacturers are plagued by a slow-moving and ineffective deductions management process. This is mostly attributed to manually tracking hundreds, if not thousands, of sales contracts, trade events, approvals, and settlements on static spreadsheets. This business practice ultimately creates financial blind spots, which skews return on investment and adversely affects the bottom line.

Gaining control

A major manufacturer with an extensive portfolio to treat dermatological conditions set out to gain stronger control over its settlements process. The first step was to gain better visibility into its trade spend dollars. A partnership with CPGvision helped drive deduction management best practices and establish companywide transparency into trade activities.

The results

Fourteen months after the manufacturer relinquished spreadsheets for the CPGvision Trade Planner solution, the company achieved significant dollar savings by closing deductions faster and decreasing the number of open deductions sitting on its books. With the fully automated CPGvision TPM software in place, outstanding deductions (90+ days) dropped by 56% and unpaid deductions older than 30 days decreased by 70%. By implementing a closed-loop platform that automatically matched deductions triggered by a specific promotional offering, the manufacturer experienced an improvement in overall settlement accuracy. With trade fund accounts automatically updated in the checkbook setting, the manufacturer was able to facilitate GL accruals and link settlements to the correct events quicker and easier.