Summary
Promotion Timing Analysis helps finance and accounting teams understand the gap between when a promotion runs and when the related deductions are actually received and processed through a matrix view of received deductions vs promotion activity.
It is located in Insights → Promotion Timing Analysis.
How To Read The Table
The table is organized as a matrix:
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Rows (vertical axis): The month a promotion ran.
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Columns (horizontal axis): The month or quarter the related deduction was received and processed.
Reading across a row tells you how long it took for deductions from a specific promotion month to fully come in.
For example, if January promotions show spend spread across January through May columns, it means it took approximately 4–5 months for those deductions to fully actualize — which is typical for many distributors.
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Past Years row: Shows deductions received in the selected year that belong to promotions that ran in prior years. This is useful for tracking carryover reserves and understanding how much prior-year spend you are still receiving.
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Future Years row: Typically $0. It is uncommon to receive deductions before a promotion runs, though small upfront payments may occasionally appear.
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Clicking on an amount (Applicable for Past and Future years rows only): Opens a breakdown of the individual deductions that make up that total. From there, you can also click on a line to view the associated sales profile, or download the data from the settings icon.
Data Flow
Promotion Timing Analysis pulls from:
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Planning: Promotion month/year data from planned promotions.
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Business → DRM: Cleared deductions and their received dates.
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Business → Revenue Dollars: Revenue data for trade rate calculation.
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Account Settings → Deductions and Revenue: Accounting source configuration and trade type pass-through rules.
Filters And Controls
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Date (Year): Limits the data to a specific time window.
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Product Group: Filters by product group.
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Customer: Filters to a specific customer or distributor to analyze their deduction timing individually.
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Fund Types: Determines which trade types are included in the table. Use this to exclude categories like terms discounts or slotting fees that you don't want factored in.
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Data Sources: Filter data by Revenue/Accounting sources.
Trade Rates In This View
The bottom of the table shows trade rates for your direct, revenue-generating accounts. This is not available for indirect customers — use Budget for that view.
Revenue shown here comes from what was uploaded in Business → Revenue Dollars and should match your ERP revenue 1:1.
Trade rate is calculated as total deductions ÷ revenue for the selected customer and period.
Setting Up Your Accounting Source
Revenue sources are first created in Account Settings → Deductions and Revenue → Revenue Sources (e.g., "Direct ERP Revenue," "SPINS," "Distributor Shipments"). Once those sources exist:
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Go to the Select Accounting Sources section just below and toggle on the source that represents your ERP or accounting system.
This designation makes that source available as a filter option in Insights → Promotion Timing Analysis.
The Daily toggle next to each source controls date granularity. By default, revenue dates are aggregated weekly (to the Sunday week-ending date).