Indirect Budgeting

Indirect Budgeting Overview

One of the most powerful capabilities of Budgeting 2.0 is indirect budgeting, which allows you to track revenue and trade spend not just at the direct customer or distributor level, but down to the individual indirect retailer level. This is especially valuable for CPG brands that sell through distributors (first receivers) like KeHE, UNFI, or DPI, where understanding the performance of indirect retailers (like Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, or Sprouts that receive product through these distributors) is traditionally very difficult. The module offers two distinct views: First Receivers (which shows shipment timing and displays distributors with the ability to expand and see all indirect retailers rolling up to each distributor) and Retailers (which shows consumption timing and displays all indirect and direct retailers individually). This dual-view system, combined with year-over-year comparison capabilities and contact-based filtering, makes Budgeting 2.0 an essential tool for understanding complex routes to market and ensuring accurate budget tracking across your entire customer portfolio. 

Goals for Sales Users 

1. Set a budget (goal) for my trade revenue, trade spend, and trade rate for different products and customers,

2. Utilize the forecast to get frequent updates (Latest Estimates or LE) on how my business is doing with respect to the same metrics so that I can make adjustments to my promotion plan if there are discrepancies between my original budget and my current status

3. Compare actual sales performance to my budget so I can adjust my future promotion plans and track internal KPI on how effectively I allocated trade spend dollars (Trade Rate and/or ROI)

Steps to Navigate Indirect Budgeting

1. Navigate to Business > Budgeting 2.0 in Vividly

2. By default, you'll see a high-level dashboard view showing Revenue, Trade Rate, and Trade Spend metrics

3. Locate the Pivot By dropdown menu (typically near the top of the interface)

4. Click Pivot By and select Customer from the dropdown options

5. Locate the Customer Type selector (typically displaying two options as tabs or a toggle)

6. Click on First Receivers to view your distributors and first receiver customers

7. The table will now display all your first receivers (distributors like UNFI, KeHE, DPI) as well as any direct customers

8. Look for rows with a small arrow icon (▼) to the left of distributor names—this indicates expandable rows

9. Click the arrow/caret icon next to any distributor name to expand and reveal indirect retailers

10. You will now see a hierarchical view showing:

    • Parent Row: The distributor/first receiver with total revenue and trade spend rolling up

    • Child Rows: Individual indirect retailers (e.g., Natural Grocers, Sprouts, Whole Foods) that receive product through that distributor

    • All Other Bucket: A calculated row representing the gap between total distributor shipments and the sum of all tracked indirect retailers (e.g. For UNFI, it will be shown as a child row called "UNFI All Other")

11. Review the revenue and trade spend figures for each indirect retailer in the child rows

    1. Important Note: Child row values use % distribution splits (if a retailer sources from multiple distributors) and weeks to retail timing adjustments

12. To collapse the view, click the arrow/caret icon again

Understanding the All Other Bucket

1. The "All Other" bucket row represents the difference between what you ship to the distributor and what you've explicitly budgeted for tracked indirect retailers. This is normal—you cannot track every single indirect retailer that receives product through a distributor

2. If you use the Forecast module, Vividly automatically calculates this bucket for you.

3. If you manually upload budget files, you can load values for the "All Other" bucket to account for untracked retailers

Switching to Retailer View

1. Click on the Retailers tab/toggle in the Customer Type selector

2. The view will now display all retailers (both indirect and direct) as individual rows without distributor parent rows

3. Key Difference: In Retailer view, there is no parent/child hierarchy—all retailers appear as standalone entries

4. Timing Difference: First Receiver view uses shipment timing, while Retailer view uses consumption timing (based on weeks to retail)

5. Use Retailer view when you want to analyze consumption-based performance without the distributor roll-up structure

Tips

• Expand multiple distributors simultaneously to see your full indirect portfolio

• Use the comparison features (covered below) to analyze indirect retailer performance against budget

• The First Receiver view is ideal for understanding how much you're shipping to distributors vs. what's being consumed at retail

• The Retailer view is better for understanding consumption patterns and planning trade spend at the point of sale

• If forecast customers see discrepancies, check pricing and customer setup changes that may have occurred since actuals were uploaded

Year-over-Year Comparisons in the Budget

1. Navigate to Business > Budgeting 2.0 in Vividly

2. Ensure you have data loaded for at least two consecutive years (e.g., 2024 and 2025)

3. Locate the Show Past Year Metrics toggle (typically near the top of the Budgeting interface)

4. Click the toggle to ON position

5. The table will immediately update to display six data points for each metric instead of three:

   • Current Year: Budget, Latest Estimate (LE), Actual

   • Past Year: Budget, Latest Estimate (LE), Actual

6. You will now see montly and quarter columns showing the difference between both selected year for a specific metric (current or past) and the filtered year (selected using the "Year" dropdown in the "Date" filter section at the top of the page).

    

Setting Up Comparisons

1. Locate the Compare With dropdown menu (typically near the comparison toggle or filters) 

2. Click Compare With to open the dropdown options

3. Select which current year metric you want to compare (options may include): - Budget (Current Year) - Latest Estimate (Current Year) - Actual (Current Year)

4. The system will display the difference between your selected comparison metric and the past year equivalent

5. Example: If you select "Actual (Current Year)", Vividly will show: Current Year Actual vs. Previous Year Actual

Viewing Differences

1. By default, you'll see the Net Difference (displayed in dollar amounts = "Dollars $" button)

2. Locate the Dollars $ and Percent % buttons

3. Click on Percent % to switch from net dollar differences to percentage differences

4. You can now see the percentage change year-over-year (e.g., "+15%" or "-8%")

5. Click back to Dollars $ to return to dollar amount view

Analyzing Year-over-Year Data

1. Positive numbers (or green highlighting) indicate you've exceeded the previous year's performance

2. Parenthetical numbers or negative values indicate you're below the previous year's performance

3. Use this view to identify:

   1. Which months show the strongest year-over-year growth

   2. Which customers or product groups are driving changes

   3. Whether trade spend increases are correlating with revenue growth

   4. If trade rate efficiency is improving or declining year-over-year

Comparing Different Scenarios

1. You can also compare Budget to Budget year-over-year (e.g., 2025 Budget vs. 2024 Budget)

2. Or compare Latest Estimate year-over-year to see how your current forecast compares to last year's forecast

3. Use the Compare With dropdown to experiment with different comparison scenarios

Tips

• Year-over-year comparisons are especially valuable when you've lost or gained significant business and current year vs. budget isn't as meaningful

• Use the Customer pivot with year-over-year view to identify which accounts are growing or declining

• Combine with the indirect budgeting view to see year-over-year performance at the indirect retailer level

• If you don't see past year data, confirm that you've uploaded budget/LE files for the previous year or that historical actuals are loaded

• Quarter view also supports year-over-year comparisons for a more consolidated analysis

Using the Contact filter 

1. Navigate to Business > Budgeting 2.0 in Vividly

2. Locate the Pivot By dropdown menu near the top of the interface

3. Click Pivot By and select Contact from the dropdown options

4. The view will now reorganize to display data grouped by Contact (typically brokers, sales representatives, or other assigned contacts)

    

Understanding Contact Pivots

1. In the Contact pivot view, you'll see each contact who has been assigned to customers in your Vividly setup

2. Each contact row shows the total revenue and trade spend for all customers assigned to that contact

   1. Important: If multiple contacts are assigned to the same customer, Vividly allows for overlapping/double-counting

1. This means the sum of all contacts may exceed your total business—this is intentional and allows you to see each contact's full responsibility 

Using Contact Filters with Other Views

1. You can use the Contact filter in combination with Pivot By Date or Pivot By Customer
2. Locate the Contact dropdown filter (typically in the filter bar at the top)
3. Click the Contact dropdown to see a list of all contacts assigned to customers
4. Select one or multiple contacts to filter the budget view to only their assigned customers
5. The budget data will now show only revenue and trade spend for the filtered contact(s)

Important Notes

1. Contacts must be assigned to customers in Manage > Customers before they appear in Budgeting
2. The contact assignment determines which revenue and trade spend rolls up to each contact
3. You can assign multiple contacts to a single customer (e.g., a broker and a sales rep)
4. When exporting the budget, contact-based data will reflect in the export file matching the table view

Filtering by Contact + Customer Type

1. Select a Contact from the filter dropdown
2. Switch between First Receivers and Retailers view to see how that contact's assignments look at different customer levels
3. This is useful for brokers who may manage both direct retailers and indirect retailers through distributors

Tips

• Use Contact pivots during monthly or quarterly business reviews with brokers
• Export the Contact pivot view to share performance data with external brokers without giving them platform access
• Update contact assignments in Manage > Customers regularly to keep attribution accurate
• Contact-based filtering works across all budget metrics (Revenue, Trade Rate, Trade Spend)
• If a customer has no contact assigned, they won't appear in Contact pivot view—use this to identify unassigned accounts