Right now consumer goods businesses are turning over every stone to seek out ways to improve profitability from cost savings to price rises. So for any business operating an incentives and rebates program this should be the first place to look.
Incentives and rebates are essential in achieving the power to boost sales and strengthen relationships. But they can also be a cause of added friction and lost income. Rebate programs have become ever more complex with various tiers, thresholds, and terms and conditions. It’s become almost impossible to manually manage them efficiently and effectively.
This complexity in rebates regularly results in errors which are estimated to cost businesses $3.07m on average every year. No business can afford this kind of revenue leakage. But for manufacturers operating on lower margins where rebates are a large contributor of profit, this can be catastrophic.
Rebates across sales channels
Another common rebate pain point is the struggle to manage the added complexity that arises when brands use alternative sales channels. New channels create additional layers and processes for rebates. Without having all data in one central location, tension can arise from inconsistent execution.
Rebate processing errors inevitably lead to disputes that are time-consuming to resolve and create cashflow headaches. With inflation causing mounting tension in manufacturer-retailer relations, rebate discrepancies can damage relationships even further.
The solution so far has been to throw more bodies at the problem, manually spotting and rectifying these errors. However, this is another money drain. One consumer goods manufacturer was experiencing disputes on 90% of its rebate claims, which required a team of six people to unpick the issues. Unlike other areas of finance or operations, rebate management has been slow to embrace change. However, by transitioning to intelligent automation, businesses can eliminate errors without additional resources.
Pricing automation
Pricing automation and rebate management from Flintfox handles the entire process from start to finish – rebate creation, submission, validation, and payment. Everything is managed in one easy-to-use place, and fully automated.
Sell-side, automated intelligent rebate management automatically accrues the expense, and verifies the eligibility of the rebate claim from customers. Ensuring that all required documentation has been submitted.
Buy-side automatically generates accurate and timely claims to land swift payment while providing clear and auditable backup details to speed up vendor approval.
Real-time visibility
Flintfox gives businesses real-time visibility of how their sell-side rebate programs are performing and where changes to terms might be needed to improve margins. With buy-side rebate management, you have an accurate and up-to-date rebate balance sheet. This ensures you’re not leaving money on the table and can enable prompt payment by suppliers.
If errors are made during contract setup, Flintfox can automatically generate adjustment accruals to ensure accrued amounts are correct. You can also track progress against rebate tiers and then adjust purchases to achieve a higher tier and maximize margins.
Rebates and incentives have evolved to improve sales and profitability, not to put a leaky bucket in the system or strain relationships. By embracing intelligent automated rebate management, businesses can unlock their true value. No discrepancies or disputes and no revenue leakage. With Flintfox you can demystify the black hole of Rebate Management.
