Accruals Dashboard: A Complete Guide

Summary

The Accruals Dashboard in Vividly (Insights → Accruals) provides finance and accounting teams with a real-time, bottoms-up view of trade accrual liability. It surfaces proposed accrual expense, deduction actuals, and suggested reversal amounts for a selected accrual month so teams can efficiently complete month-end close. Accruals update dynamically as shipments occur, promotions start or end, and volume actualizes — giving you near-real-time visibility into spend versus plan.

Audience & Scope

Who this is for: Finance Leaders (CFO, VP Finance), Accounting Contributors (Staff Accountants, AR/AP Specialists, Deductions Specialists), Sales Finance Analysts. All users with Accruals access.
What it covers: Navigating the Accruals Dashboard, using filters and pivot options, reading data columns, customizing views, exporting data, and best practices for month-end close.
What it does not cover: Setting up GL mappings, configuring the auto-close feature (found in Account Settings → Miscellaneous), or manually opening/closing promotion lines (covered in View Promotions: Open/Close Lines).

When to Use This

During month-end close to determine your open accrual liability and identify reversal candidates.
When building or reviewing a journal entry for trade accruals (by GL account, fund type, first receiver, or product group).
To monitor real-time spend versus forecasted trade spend across open promotions.
When reviewing promotion-level or line-level detail to understand where accrual balances originate.
When preparing an ERP/GL posting that requires a current accrual snapshot.

Steps: Navigating & Using the Accruals Dashboard

Step 1 — Navigate to the Accruals Dashboard

From the left-hand navigation bar, click "Insights".
Select "Accruals" from the sub-menu. You should see the Accruals table load with your promotions.

Step 2 — Set Your Date Filters

Click "Accrual Period Start" (top filter bar) and select the first month of your fiscal or calendar year. This anchors the starting point for all accrual data displayed.
1. Note: If your fiscal year begins in a month other than January (e.g., April), set the Accrual Period Start accordingly.
Click "Current Accrual Month" and select the month you are currently closing. This defaults to the current calendar month.

Step 3 — Choose Your Pivot (View Level)

Click the "Pivot: Promotion Line" selector in the top-left of the page.
Choose between:
- Promotion Line (default) — Detailed view at the individual promotion line level. Each fund type within a promotion appears as its own row with its own Line Key. Recommended for finance teams building journal entries.
- Promotion — Rolled-up summary at the parent promotion level; multiple fund type lines are aggregated into one row.

Step 4 — Apply Additional Filters

Use the filter bar (below the date filters) to narrow results by:
- "Customer" — Filter to a specific retailer, distributor, or customer group hierarchy.
- "Product Group" — Filter by product or product hierarchy.
- "Fund Type" — Filter to a specific trade fund type (e.g., Scan, Ad, Slotting).
- "First Receiver" — Filter to a specific first-receiver customer.
Click "Filter" (funnel icon) to access advanced search options for additional filtering.

Note: The Promotion Status filter defaults to showing active and completed promotions. Pending promotions are excluded by default.

Step 5 — Configure "Show Accruals By" and Column Settings

Click "Settings" in the upper-right of the table area to open the settings menu.
Under "Show Accruals By", choose:
- Promotion Month (default) — Actuals map to the specific promotion month/year set in Promotion Planning.
- Promotion Line Duration — Actuals spread across the entire run duration of the promotion.
Toggle "Show Open Promotion Lines" on or off:
- On: Open promotion lines are visible. Closed promotion lines are always shown regardless of this toggle.
- Off: Only closed promotion lines appear.
Click "Manage Columns" to show or hide individual columns in your accruals table view.
Warning: If you hide columns before exporting, the export will reflect only the visible columns in your current view. To export the full default column set, ensure all columns are visible before exporting.

Step 6 — Save Your View

Once you have set your preferred filters, pivot, and column settings, click "Set as Default View" in the top-right corner to save this configuration for future sessions.

Reading the Data

The Accruals table is divided into two main sections:

Promotion Data (left columns): Static information about each promotion or promotion line.
Accrual Data (right columns): Monthly accrual values for each period in your selected range.

Key Column Definitions

Column	What it means
Name	Promotion name.
ID (Line Key / Promo Key)	Unique identifier. At the Promotion Line level, this is the Line Key (each fund type within a promotion has its own Line Key). At the Promotion level, this is the Promo Key.
Account	The GL account associated with this promotion's fund type.
Month/Year	The promotion month/year set during promotion creation in Promotion Planning.
Forecasted Spend	Total expected/planned trade spend for this promotion or line.
Days Until Auto-Close	Number of days remaining until this promotion is automatically closed based on your Account Settings configuration.
First Receiver	The revenue-generating customer (distributor or direct account) associated with the promotion.
Monthly Accrual Columns	Dollar values per accrual period. Blue values indicate the month a promotion starts. Negative red values indicate total deductions received in that month.
Total Accrual	Cumulative accrual liability for this promotion/line.
Diff to Accrual	The difference between total forecasted spend and total deductions applied. A positive value means more spend is expected than actuals received; a negative value means deductions exceed forecast.
Proposed Reversal	The open accrual amount that can be reversed during the selected accrual month. Typically represents the available accrual balance at time of close for that given month.

Exporting Accruals

Configure your filters, pivot, and visible columns as desired.
Click "Export" in the top-right corner of the page.
The export file will contain the columns currently visible in your dashboard view. If you have not modified column visibility, the export includes the full default column set.

Default Export Columns

The standard export includes the following fields:

Export Field	Description
Promotion Name	Name of the promotion
Promotion Key	Parent promotion identifier
Promotion Date	Promotion month/year
Forecasted Spend	Planned trade spend
Days Until Close	Days remaining until auto-close
First Receiver	Revenue-generating customer
Total Accrual	Total accrual liability
Diff To Accrual	Forecasted spend minus actual deductions
Proposed Reversal	Suggested reversal amount for accrual month
Promotion Status	Open / Closed / Completed / Cancelled
Customer Class	Customer classification
Customer Channel	Customer channel
Products	Products associated with the promotion
Fund Type ID / Fund Type Name	Trade fund type
Product Groups	Product group
Line Key	Promotion line-level identifier
Account	GL account code
Product Group	Product grouping

Note: Export columns reflect the columns visible on screen. To get the complete default set, restore all columns to visible before exporting.

Best Practices

Setting Up the View for Month-End Close

Set Accrual Period Start to the first month of your fiscal year and Current Accrual Month to the month you are closing. Focus your analysis on the current and prior periods; future months are not relevant for month-end close.
Use Promotion Line view for journal entries — it breaks out each GL account and fund type individually, making it easier to build accurate GL postings.
Use Promotion view for high-level executive summaries or when a rolled-up perspective is sufficient.

Closing Promotions Regularly

Leaving promotions open indefinitely inflates accrual liabilities because the system continues to reserve expected spend even when all deductions have been received.
Establish a cadence (e.g., close all promotions 90–120 days after end date) and use the Open/Close Lines view in Promotions Planning to bulk-close eligible lines.
Review the Forecasted Spend vs. actual deductions before closing. A significant gap (e.g., expected $10,000, received $3,000) warrants investigation before closure.
Enable auto-close via Account Settings → Miscellaneous to automatically close promotions after a set number of days (typically 100–160 days) following their end date.

Building a Journal Entry from Accruals

Export the accrual data and pivot by GL Account and Fund Type to group entries correctly.
Exclude any closed promotions (status = Closed) from your journal entry calculation — these are fully actualized and do not require an accrual entry.
The Proposed Reversal column provides the suggested reversal amount for each line during the selected accrual month — use this as the starting point for reversing journal entries.
Vividly supports both reversing and non-reversing journal entry formats.

Data Quality

Accruals are only as accurate as the data behind them. Ensure customer and product hierarchies are clean, GL mappings are correct, and promotion metadata (month, fund type) is accurate.
Confirm that shipment/sales data feeds are up-to-date before pulling month-end accruals. Accruals update dynamically as new data comes in.
Use the Diff to Accrual column to identify promotions where actuals deviate significantly from forecasts — these are candidates for investigation or early closure.

Expected Result

After completing the steps above, you should see:

A filtered list of open (and optionally closed) promotion lines or promotions within your selected accrual period.
Monthly accrual dollar values across the selected date range, with blue values marking promotion start months and negative red values indicating deductions received.
A Proposed Reversal amount for each line relative to your selected accrual month, ready for use in your journal entry process.
An export file (if downloaded) containing all applicable columns for GL posting and financial reporting.

Troubleshooting

Issue: Promotions are not appearing in the Accruals table.
Likely cause: The promotions are closed, the date filters exclude their period, or the Promotion Status filter is excluding them.
Fix: (1) Check that "Show Open Promotion Lines" is toggled on in Settings. (2) Verify the Accrual Period Start includes the period when the promotion ran. (3) Review the Promotion Status filter — by default, pending promotions are excluded; closed promotions are always shown but may have $0 balances.

Issue: Accrual values appear unexpectedly high or do not reflect recent deductions.
Likely cause: Old promotions have not been closed, causing the system to continue reserving expected spend; or recent deduction data has not yet synced/been uploaded.
Fix: (1) Identify promotions with large Diff to Accrual values and verify whether deductions have been received. (2) Ensure your deductions data has been uploaded and processed in the DRM module. (3) Close fully-actualized promotions to remove them from the accrual report.

Issue: The export is missing columns I expect to see.
Likely cause: Columns were hidden using "Manage Columns" before exporting.
Fix: Go to Settings → "Manage Columns" and restore all desired columns to visible, then re-export.

Issue: The "Proposed Reversal" column shows $0 for a promotion I expect to reverse.
Likely cause: The promotion may be closed (system defaults to actuals), all expected spend has been matched to actuals, or the Current Accrual Month filter is set to an incorrect period.
Fix: (1) Verify the promotion is still open (lock icon should be green/open). (2) Confirm the Current Accrual Month matches the period you intend to close. (3) Check that the Forecasted Spend value is populated correctly on the promotion.

Issue: Accrual data appears split differently than expected (too spread or too concentrated).
Likely cause: The "Show Accruals By" setting may be set to "Promotion Line Duration" instead of "Promotion Month" (or vice versa).
Fix: Go to Settings → "Show Accruals By" and switch between Promotion Month (maps actuals to the promotion's specific month in Promotion Planning) and Promotion Line Duration (spreads actuals across the full duration of the promotion).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What happens to a promotion after it is closed?
A: Closed promotions drop off the active accrual view. The system switches from using expected spend to actuals for that promotion. No additional deductions can be paired to a closed promotion line. You can reopen a promotion by clicking the closed padlock icon.

Q: What is the difference between Promotion Line view and Promotion view?
A: Promotion Line view displays a separate row for each fund type within a promotion (each with its own Line Key), giving granular GL-level detail. Promotion view rolls up all fund type lines into a single row per parent promotion. Finance teams generally use Promotion Line view for journal entry work.

Q: Does closing a promotion affect data in other modules?
A: Yes. Closing a promotion signals that all expected deductions have been received. The promotion drops off the accrual report, and the accrued dollars can be returned to the P&L. ROI can then be calculated using actual spend and lift data.

Q: Does filtering the table change the underlying accrual calculations?
A: No. The filters and column settings only change what is displayed and exported. The core accruals logic and calculations are not affected by UI filters or column visibility changes.

Q: Can I toggle between spend date and cleared date?
A: NEEDS VERIFICATION: This toggle (between invoice/spend date and cleared date) is available for users with the applicable feature access. Confirm availability with your Vividly account team if you do not see this option.