According to the leadership at TrewUp, deductions are made up of all activities within the supply chain, including shortages, late fees, promotions, advertising, spoils, and more.
“To reduce costs and boost sales, natural product companies need to identify where they should invest time and resources,” said Barnholt. “Understanding deductions by type — such as fines and fees as opposed to advertising and promotion — is one step toward gaining that visibility.”
He continued, “From there, they need to drill into spend by indirect retailer in order to manage trade spend for maximum ROI. We're excited to bring a tool to market that automates these crucial processes for companies seeking success in a challenging market.”
TrewUp categorizes billbacks and aggregates the data by category, making it easy to input into accounting software such as QuickBooks. Brands can quickly see whether they've overspent or underspent their accruals, allowing them to better manage their promotions and reinvest any savings.
According to Barnholt, CPG and natural products manufacturers often see deductions as an expense that is out of their control, or as a labor-intensive process of uncovering data that is often “buried in hundreds of invoice formats on thousands of PDFs across platforms and mediums,” making it difficult to effectively mine that valuable information. He noted, however, “Deductions are a unique source of intelligence about your business that can be used to improve everything from warehouse processes to sales to promotional schedules.”
