Trade finance in foodservice is complicated. Numerous trade programs from hundreds of different sources are coming in many different formats. But your organization nonetheless has the obligation to clear those claims on time and to the right program, and on top of that, you almost certainly depend on those claims for accurate financial reporting, forecasting, and sales planning.
For many manufacturers, the tension between maintaining low deduction days outstanding (DDO), a tight accrual, and accurate reporting turns into a tug of war. If claims are manually keyed into a trade promotion management (TPM) system, an organization spends most time working the largest claims, so smaller ones are written off. Although small, these claims are numerous and many of them could also be invalid, reducing trade spend effectiveness. They create gaps in reporting as well. Further, manual claim entry into a TPM system prohibits the collection of line item detail, which is crucial to effective operator reporting. If a manufacturer wants to improve the accuracy of its reporting, then it either needs to increase resources or slow down claims turnaround time, which increases DDO and reduces accrual efficiencies.
What if you didn’t have to make that tradeoff?
Unlock Efficiency with Automation
Many manufacturers are still manually keying in claims because automating trade claim processing in foodservice is difficult. They don’t have the systems or ability to program automation rules for claims across hundreds of different sources of data.
However, the benefits of automation are compelling:
- The chance of making a manual error is reduced.
- The speed of processing is increased, thus increasing accrual accuracy and lowering DDO.
- The manufacturer has more time to investigate and resolve more invalid deductions before dispute windows close with customers.
- The cost of processing an incremental claim goes down almost to zero, thus allowing an organization to process small claims and reduce write-offs and reporting gaps.
- Because automation captures every line item in a claim, a manufacturer can audit for double-dips, in which an operator location receives two payments under two different trade deals for the same case purchased. By stopping double-dips, manufacturers can drop trade savings to the bottom line or reinvest them to drive growth.
- Automation also increases the time available for auditing double-dips. This means manufacturers can short-pay GPO rebates for invalid claims versus clawing the money back later.
- Resources who entered claims manually are freed to perform more value-added work, thus allowing an organization to deploy its resources more effectively.
With automation as a solution, there are no tradeoffs among a low DDO, tight accruals, and accurate reporting.
Line of Sight into Operators
In the tug of war between DDO, accruals, and reporting, reporting usually takes the hit, so one major benefit to manufacturers that automate their claims processing is a much sharper line of sight into their operator business. This not only improves sales reporting, distributor negotiations, and forecasting, but also enables new types of trade growth programs, like those based on segment or organic growth metrics at GPOs.
Industry-Leading 48-hour Turnaround Time
When it comes to claims automation, Tibersoft is an industry leader. When a claim is received, it’s cleansed and delivered to your TPM system at the line-item level within 48 business hours, allowing you to clear the claim and get visibility into your operator business within days of receipt.
Conclusion
In today’s fast-paced foodservice manufacturing environment, maintaining low Deduction Days Outstanding, tight accruals, and accurate, detailed reporting is crucial. With Tibersoft’s Deliver, manufacturers can achieve all three without compromising accuracy or increasing small write-off’s.
