Promotional Funds Management

We pride ourselves on knowing the intricacies of your promotional funds management program so that it is administered fully and without error or omission. We will address any questions your retailers have regarding the program in a timely fashion to minimize delays or implementation. Moreover, we will serve as your extended team to make sure the program achieves its purpose.

As your agents, we will follow up on all commitments due from you to your retailers or from them to you. Whether it be rebate payment administration, trade funds program reconciliation, or any other obligation, we will serve as your extended team to make sure they are completed fully on time, every time.

A centralized system means that there is only one place a user must go to find the name, primary address, and transactional activities within a promotional funds management program.

There are several benefits to having your data in a centralized system:

Accu-Track will compile your data, and organize it into a user-friendly format, in one central database and create the reports you’re looking for. Your information will only be one phone call or email away! Should you ever decide to bring the contract management function in-house, having all your data organized in one place will make it much easier.

Rebate programs can be very effective marketing tools, but they are far from an efficient way to dispense trade funds for most manufacturers and distributors.  Some companies rely heavily on monthly rebate programs that incentivize their retailers to buy, perform and advertise. Others only use rebates for special promotions and unfortunately, some forego the benefits of promotions through rebates because they are too cumbersome to administer.

Accu-Track will take the headache out of administering your rebate program, pay your participants and reconcile bank statements at the end of each month or promotion.  You will not only know that your marketing dollars are providing their intended incentive but you will also see which retailers are not participating. Just one check from you to fund the distribution and we’ll do the rest.

Because we manage all aspects of your trade and promotional spend, including upfront invoice level discounts along with all retrospective programs, we are positioned perfectly to reconcile current trade and pricing deductions.  We also resolve and recover deductions and “Intents to Deduct” from post auditing firms hired by your customer. This means a simple and straightforward explanation for the variance enabling all parties to get the clarity they need to move forward.

When deductions hit your books or post auditors send “intents to deduct”, Accu-Track works directly with your customers, brokers and auditors to research, identify and resolve invalid/unauthorized attempts quickly to reclaim funds.  Additionally, we will verify valid claims and provide you with our results. This ensures the program runs effectively, promotional fund balances are not unduly impacted and that any deductions taken in error can be recovered quickly with a full explanation of our audit results.

Two of the most critical factors to a well-run trade fund program are adherence to the trade spend budget and proper allocation of funds to “planned events”. With our “active” monitoring, Accu-Track routinely checks these factors for any anomalies. When the level of spending or deductions taken reaches a certain variance (versus “trade spend budget” or execution of “planned events”), they serve as a “trigger” to audit the trade fund account, identify unplanned or excessive deductions and reconcile any variants.

Manufacturer’s promotional funds (or trade funds) are used to pay for advertising their products through retailers. However, if not monitored closely, they can be misused, taken more than once through different methods employed by the retailer or simply taken, without fulfilling their performance obligations. Since promotional funds can so easily be diverted away from their intended purpose, Accu-Track is devoted to watching your dollars as if they were our own.  We will ensure that the budget funds get to the right place, in the right amount and that the promotions are executed properly, down to stock keeping unit (SKU), territory and period.

With Accu-Track managing your trade funds, reporting on “event” execution and providing you with actionable data, you will rest easy, knowing that your promotional dollars are being used for their intended purpose and that they are being reconciled in a timely manner, reducing the need for excessive write offs at “year end”.

At Accu-Track Financial Solutions we know that the effectiveness of your promotional funds management program and overall business is contingent upon a good understanding of your data. As a matter of practice, we will conduct ongoing data analysis of your program to glean any insights.