How do you manage the terms for the deals that govern your rebate incentives?

Terms? What terms?
Let me check this filing cabinet.
I know I have a PDF somewhere in my inbox…
We have an internal, digital workflow that automatically archives every term sheet.

How do you make changes to your trading terms?

We can make changes?
I call my contact and we have a casual chat.
Through meetings backed up with any necessary emails.
We mark up our terms digitally and share them with our partners. Everyone has full transparency.

What does your accrual process look like?

We account for something whenever cash changes hands, just like they did in the good ol’ days.
I manage everything manually. On spreadsheets. It’s… fine.
The past is clear, the future… not so much.
We know exactly when to accrue for everything, past, present and future.

What do rebates do for your business?

I’m really not sure. We kind of take our rebates for granted.
They’re nothing more than an extra layer of income or cost, depending on whether we’re buying or selling.
We use rebates to encourage loyalty with our business partners.
Our rebates not only help us build trust and better relationships with partners, they help us grow our sales and margins.

How do your deals work for you and your partners?

Look, everyone is angry about missed payments all the time. I don’t know what to do!
Our deals exist. And we manage them. Mostly.
We work together with our partners to navigate issues before they arise.
Our deals are a mutually beneficial partnership.

Who manages rebates within your organization?

No idea.
We don’t have a dedicated person managing rebates. That responsibility is just one of many.
We have a single, dedicated rebate manager.
We understand that rebate management is a responsibility that spans multiple functions, from sales to marketing to finance, and we work as a cross-functional team to execute on them.

How do rebates impact your KPIs?

Uh… that’s a great question…
They increase loyalty.
They increase loyalty and sales.
Not only do they increase loyalty and sales, but they also boost our margins.

How would your stakeholders describe rebates?

Smoke and mirrors for pricing.
An audit challenge but a necessary evil.
An important part of our industry.
A key tool to manage the business and grow margins.

How do you collect on or issue your rebates?

Honestly? We do payment and receipt claims only when we're asked to.
Mostly, we do what our trading partner says. This has led to a few disputes, however…
We have a reliable process that we run at critical junctures.
On-time. Our partners always know exactly how much they owe us or how much we owe them.

How frequently do you run rebate calculations?

We don’t. Instead, we estimate based on past levels.
Monthly, but our data is terrible and it’s a manual process. Please, don’t ask to see our spreadsheets.
Monthly, with a smooth process that keeps everyone happy.
Live. Everyone always knows exactly where they stand.