Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Promotions Planning 

• Question - Can you enter a promo for a First Receiver (Distributor) based on shipped volume?
  • Answer - Yes, you can enter a promotion for a First Receiver based on shipments to them. However, if it's an indirect relationship (pulling from a distributor), you would want to enter the volume shipped from the First Receiver to the Retailer.
• Question - Can I edit a promotion that has already run, and is in completed status? The promotion also has deductions applied to it.
  • Answer = While the system will allow an Admin to do this, we highly discourage editing a promotion that has already run and is in Completed status.
• Question: Why is the auto-update forecast button not working?
  • Answer: The system updates the new promotions nightly to match the correct forecast based on the new time period, retailer, etc. it won't be immediate, but tomorrow morning all the adjustments will be made. Specifically, it is run overnight at 3am PST, so safe to say anytime after 6am PST you should see all the updates.
• Question: What does the Forecast Sales button do?
  • The Forecast Sales button automatically calculates your Total Expected Unit Sales based on your promotion's in-store dates. Simply enter your promotion dates and expected lift percentage, then click the button to instantly populate both your expected unit sales and calculated spend fields. The system pulls from your latest forecast version and applies lift only to the relevant date ranges (scan-back, in-store, etc.).
• Question: What is Auto-Update Forecast?
  • Auto-Update Forecast is a checkbox feature that eliminates the need to manually update promotion volumes when your forecast data changes. When selected during promotion creation or editing, this feature automatically runs overnight and essentially "presses" the Forecast Sales button for every eligible promotion line across all forecast-enabled portals. The system updates each promotion line's Total Expected Units and Total Expected Spend (calculated as Total Expected Units × Spend Rate) based on the latest forecast version, ensuring your promotions always reflect current volume and spend projections without manual intervention. This feature only applies to promotions that are not in Completed, Declined, or Cancelled status, and only works for fund types that have Lift, In-Store, and Rate fields assigned in Account Settings. 
• Question: How do I switch between different promotion views?
  • Answer: In Promotions Planning, you'll see view option buttons at the top (computer screen icon) - simply click between "Column View," "List View," "Submission," "Approval," "Advanced Duplication," "Open/Close Lines," and "Calendar" to switch between the different formats and workflows.
• Question: What's the difference between Column View and List View?
  • Column View organizes promotions by status columns (Pending, Submitted, Approved, Running, Completed), while List View shows all promotions in a simple list format without status groupings.
• Question: How do I download a list of all my promotions?
  • Click the gear icon (cog wheel) at the top right of the Promotions Planning page and select "Download Promotions." You can choose to download directly as an Excel file, CSV file, or have an Excel file emailed to you - if you have any filters applied, it will only export those filtered promotions.
• Question: What's included in the promotion export?
  • The promotion export includes every detail entered in each promotion: customer, dates, products, rates, expected spend, promotion status, attached contracts, comments, and tags. It provides a comprehensive spreadsheet with all promotion data that matches your current view or filters.
• Question: Can you edit the promotion type/fund type of existing promotions by upload?
  • No, you cannot. This is because each fund type has specific field requirements and mappings configured in your Account Settings, and the system cannot automatically re-map fields when the fund type changes. To change a fund type, you'll need to manually edit each promotion individually or create new promotions with the correct fund type.

Deductions Spend

• Question = If my Promotion has >1 First Receiver, which one do I select for Customer Name when uploading Deductions Spend for that promotion?
  • Answer = Enter the First Receiver that the deduction originated from under Customer Name

Deductions Reconciliation

• Question: How do I request a new backup source for Deduction Scanning?
  • Answer: Send an email requesting a new backup source to deductions-pulling@govividly.com At least 3 example files plus a brief description of the deduction
• Question: Can you delete invoice lines if they are in sales review?
  • Answer: No, you must first cancel the sales review before deleting the line. To do this: select the line, go to "Resolution Activity," choose "Cancel Sales Review," add a comment, then submit. Once the sales review is canceled, you can delete the invoice line using the trash can icon.
• Question: Can you clear deductions to closed promotion lines?
  • Answer: No, you cannot clear deductions directly to closed promotion lines. The system prevents this as an internal control measure. However, if you need to clear a late deduction (such as a post-audit), you can reopen the promotion line, clear the deduction, and then close it again if needed.
• Question: What is the logic that determines the Customer Name and Vividly Customer Name mapping logic? 
  • Answer: This is the priority for how customer mapping logic works:
    1. Exact match to a Vividly Customer Profile Name
    2. Exact match to an alt-name
    3. Substring match to an alt-name that has the Deductions Matching tag. Ex) If I have an alt-name of "Sprouts" with the Deductions Matching tag, "Sprouts #1231" and "Sprouts Denver" would both match since they contain the word "Sprouts". 

• Question: Hello, when I want to manually input the "units sold" in a promotion versus using the percentage lift tool, will that still carry over to my forecast?
  • Answer: you will need to enter the % lift for the incremental volume to carry over to the forecast. Lift is the key metric for adding promotional volume to your base forecast. I suggest reviewing your base forecast and lift assumption if the result is not coming out to what you'd expect.
• Question: I had a question on adding a promotion and having it automatically added to the forecast. I finished the 2024 forecast for The Fresh Market and I went to add a Jan 2024 promotion so I inputted the spend rate and expected lift %, checked "auto-update forecast" and clicked forecast sales then finished the promo but when I went back to the fresh market 2024 forecast, there wasn't a unit/revenue lift from in January.
  • Answer: anytime you make adjustments in promotions that you want to reflect in the forecast, you need to press the "generate forecast" button in the top right of the forecast module.Question: I had a question on adding a promotion and having it automatically added to the forecast. I finished the 2024 forecast for The Fresh Market and I went to add a Jan 2024 promotion so I inputted the spend rate and expected lift %, checked "auto-update forecast" and clicked forecast sales then finished the promo but when I went back to the fresh market 2024 forecast, there wasn't a unit/revenue lift from in January.
• Question - What are Seasonality Buckets?
  • Answer: Seasonality buckets are Vividly's way to group products and customers that share similar seasonal demand patterns, allowing you to apply seasonal multipliers (above or below 1.0) to automatically adjust forecasts throughout the year instead of manually updating each product individually. You create buckets for items with similar seasonality (like holiday products or back-to-school items), assign weekly index values, and the system applies these adjustments to your forecast calculations - with each customer-product combination only allowed in one bucket to prevent conflicts. 
• Question - What are Seasonality Indexes?
  • Answer: Seasonality indexes are the specific weekly multiplier values (usually around 1.0) that you assign to each seasonality bucket for all 52 weeks of the year. A value of 1.0 means normal baseline demand with no seasonal adjustment, while values above 1.0 (like 1.2) indicate 20% higher seasonal demand for that week, and values below 1.0 (like 0.8) represent 20% lower seasonal demand. These indexes are multiplied against your store counts and velocities in Vividly's forecast calculations, automatically adjusting your projected units and revenue based on predictable seasonal patterns rather than requiring manual weekly adjustments.
• Question: What's the difference between budgeted vs. latest estimate vs. actual?
  
  • Budgeted = Your planned numbers (from a saved forecast version or file upload)
  • Latest Estimate = Current live forecast, automatically updated with your latest promotions
  • Actual = Real numbers from your ERP/deduction data uploads
• Question: Do Accounting Source uploads impact the forecast? 
  • Answer: Yes, Accounting Sources uploads impact the forecast - but only for customers whose "Forecast Revenue Source" is set to "Accounting Source" (typically distributors/first receivers). When you upload accounting source data and click "Generate Forecast", it actualizes those weeks and recalculates the forward forecast. Retailers using consumption data (Spins/POS) won't have their forecast affected by accounting source uploads, but the revenue still appears in reporting and budget.
• Question: What is the relationship between the seasonality index and base velocity?
  • Answer: For actualized weeks, base velocity is calculated by dividing units by seasonality (Units ÷ Seasonality ÷ Stores) to remove seasonal effects and reveal true baseline performance.  For forecasted weeks, base velocity is multiplied by seasonality to project future units, with values above 1.0 indicating higher-than-normal seasonal periods and below 1.0 indicating lower seasonal periods.
• Question: How are weeks to retail managed in the forecast?
  • Answer: Retailer view shows consumption data (when sold on shelf), while distributor view shifts retailer forecasts backward by weeks to retail to calculate when shipments need to occur.  For example, 2 weeks to retail means product sold Feb 11th appears in distributor forecast as shipped Jan 28th.

Manage - Customers

• Question: I'm trying to set up a new customer, but I’m receiving an error for “customer name already exists”.  However, the customer name is not listed within my Manage Customers section. How do I proceed? 
  • Answer: Customer name is already listed as an alt-name for a different customer. In order to add it as a separate customer, the user will first need to delete the alt-name, then retry creating a new customer. 

Manage - Pricing

• Question: Where can I find what pricing is assigned to a given customer?
  • Answer: Our pricing section is at the customer level by product group and is within the manage section as “Pricing”.
• Question: When I input a new price, should I always put a new starting date?
  • Answer: Yes, always set an effective/starting date when inputting a new price. This allows the system to properly match revenue data to the correct price based on transaction dates and maintain accurate pricing history. Without a starting date, the system treats the price as valid for all time periods, which can cause data matching issues.

Manage - Product Groups

• Question: Should I enter Product Margin as a percent, integer, or decimal? 
  • Answer: Product Margin should be entered as a decimal. 

• Question: Why can't one of our users not see an account they own when creating a new promotion?
  • Answer: This is a permissions issue. Please check that they have the correct role permission in Settings > Permissions. You can adjust customer assignments in account settings. Go to Account Settings > Permissions > Users. Then find the user you want to update and add the customers they should see.
• Question: How do you add new users to Vividly?
  • Answer: Ask the customer support team to create new users on your behalf. 
  • Provide the following information: 
    • The User's Name
    • Email Address
    • User Role (this dictates what permissions the user will have)
    • Assigned Customers (Optional - Default is users have access to all customers)
• Question: How can I change my password?
  • Answer: Vividly uses a passwordless authentication system, we don't have passwords to change! Simply enter your email address on the login page, and we'll send you a secure magic link to access your account.

Business - Revenue Dollars

• Question: How do you bulk delete revenue entries?
  • Answer: Click on the gear icon then select Advanced Deletion. Enter the Start Date and End Date. Select which Revenue Source(s) you'd like to delete. Click "Delete Selected". 
  • Note: Clicking the "Delete all revenue entries" checkbox will clear any previous filters and delete all revenue regardless of Timeframe or Revenue Source. Do not do this unless you are absolutely sure you want to delete all revenue. 

Business - Point-of-Sale Data

• Question: How do you bulk delete revenue entries?
  • Answer: Click on the gear icon then select Advanced Deletion. Enter the Start Date and End Date. Select which Revenue Source(s) you'd like to delete. Click "Delete Selected". 
  • • Note: Clicking the “Delete all POS entries” checkbox will clear any previous filters and delete all POS regardless of Timeframe or POS Source. Do not do this unless you are absolutely sure you want to delete all POS data.