Trade spend management software to help you spend smart

Creating an outstanding, holistic pricing and trade spend strategy through actionable insights: that’s why leaders in the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry choose Visualfabriq’s Trade Spend Master™. Enjoy rapid planning, see the volume and value impact of strategies immediately, and include syndicated data, all within an audit-proof approval workflow.

Solution icons-09

Win-win trade spend management

Sales accounts gain more buying power through consolidation. Consumers are becoming less loyal and more price sensitive while cost prices are increasing due to market conditions. CPG’s face harder negotiations, difficulty setting price points, and more frequent price discussions. Relying on manual input for trade spend management limits visibility on account profitability and margins.

 

Visualfabriq’s Trade Spend Master™ enables commercial teams to sustain long-term profitable growth through financial visibility of the impact of pricing and contract strategies through combination of relevant internal and external data sources. Plan and optimize contractual trade spend as well as trade pricing at any level of granularity and create win-win strategies, all covered by an audit-proof workflow. Drive profitable revenue growth, with minimum effort.

26

Yes, I want to know more about Visualfabriq’s Trade Spend Management Software

Trusted by leaders in the CPG Industry.

Better pricing, more profitable deals with Visualfabriq

Save time planning and analyzing, win results negotiating through an advanced trade spend strategy

What’s so exciting?

Create contract and pricing strategies for sustainable growth
Understand how trade spend and trade pricing contribute to channel and category revenue through direct visibility of impact on the P&L.
Drive holistic pricing negotiations
Seamless combination of data sources generates visibility of both manufacturer and account profitability, at all levels of the gross-to-net.
Save time and spend on trade spend management
Plan and approve faster with Visualfabriq’s configurable workflow. Enjoy the control of effortless audit logbook creation.
Build scenarios and include uncertainties
Be ready for the unexpected using standardized input for risks and opportunities and create scenarios to model your plans.
Leverage pricing elasticity data
Use the coefficients of pricing elasticity studies to model the impact of your pricing plans, including own and competitor RSP changes.
Save time and spend on claim matching
Use Visualfabriq’s claim module to match and manage claims to contract accruals.

Game changers for trade spend management

Enjoy low total costs of ownership

Visualfabriq offers its software as a service (SaaS). All customers use the latest codebase, as maintenance and upgrades are included. This is what true SaaS is. This limited demand on the organization is paired with low implementation and maintenance costs: 100% configuration drives fast deployment and unlimited scaling capabilities allow constant growth of organization and data.

Improve efficiency through seamless data integration

There are many stakeholders in trade spend With many relevant data sources, seamless integration of ex-factory data and external data sources (syndicated data, EPoS etc.) is key. Through Visualfabriq’s unique data integration layer Bifrost, customers can control their data independently, driving more trust. The result of seamless integration? Improved forecast reliability the certainty that financial actuals are updated promptly and the ability to create win-win strategies that drive revenue growth for both manufacturer and account.

Remove manual work through advanced master data management

Changes in master data, especially assortment changes, take up much time within CPG organizations. Code switching is cumbersome and manual, having to be managed in demand solutions as well as promotion planning – often multiple times a year. Visualfabriq’s revenue management software features the Product Lifecycle, which handles all product switching and automatically applies it throughout the revenue growth software.

Drive efficiency with data alignment across the organization

The Visualfabriq revenue forecasting and optimization software is created as a single, integrated ecosystem, logically connecting the different solutions to the Revenue Plan and each other. This ensures full alignment of data, thus driving a one-number principle throughout organizations. Efficiency to the max, no need to duplicate administration or manually knit data together.

TSM
Save time through removal of repetitive tasks

Manual administration, account proposal generation and audit trails take up too much time in CPG organizations. Advanced automation reduces reliance on manual work and frees up time to take those actions that make the difference.

FAQ's

What is trade spend management?

Trade spend is the money a CPG manufacturer invests in their accounts (accounts, wholesalers, distributors etc.) The trade investment is meant to drive product availability, visibility and accessibility for consumers, both non-promoted and promoted. Trade spend management is the process of planning, managing and executing these investments. Usually, the sales team is in the lead, cooperating closely with finance teams.

What is trade spend optimization? 

Trade spend optimization is the process of continuous improvement of trade spend effectiveness and efficiency, driving plan account and assortment profitability. Trade spend optimization is a continuous loop: following execution of a contract or promotion, learnings are captured to improve future trade spend investments.

 

Whilst in the past this was often a labor-intensive process, today there is trade spend management software like Visualfabriq’s to support sales teams. The Trade Spend Master integrates the data sources that in the past were manually combined, such as ex-factory volumes, syndicated and Electronic Point of Sales (EPoS) data.

 

The Trade Spend Master enables users to review the impact of trade spend and define alternative scenarios. Understand the impact on account, channel, brand and assortment profitability and act.

Can I integrate the Trade Spend Master with my ERP system? 

Absolutely! Integration between Visualfabriq and a customer’s ERP system is a standard phase of our deployment approach. As Visualfabriq’s aim is to remove all manual administration, it makes sure that the trade spend management software is your one stop shop: plan and approve to trigger a message.

Is Visualfabriq trade spend software secure? 

At Visualfabriq the security of client’s data is paramount. Therefore, Visualfabriq is fully certified for:

ISO 27001 – ISO/IEC 27001

SOC 1 – SOC 1SM

SOC 2 – SOC 2

What sort of data can Visualfabriq integrate in the trade spend management software? 

Visualfabriq supports the integration of all ERP systems. Integration works both ways: the platform pulls in master data and sends pricing, conditions and volumes.

Visualfabriq also integrates in-market data: syndicated data (such as Nielsen, IRI), Electronic Point of Sales (EPoS) data. And what’s even better: create formulas combining multiple sources to understand plan account margins. Gain insight and deliver value to the entire chain.

Can we assign guardrails, e.g. floor prices, minimum retailer invoice prices?

Absolutely! It’s clear that setting thresholds for prices and discounts can be key to maintaining a minimum level of profitability. Visualfabriq supports floor price management and can incorporate floor prices in warning messages and approval flows.

Can Visualfabriq supply a full logbook of adjustments and approvals for audit purposes? 

Governance and compliance are key in the CPG industry. Relevant changes made in the Trade Spend Master are captured in a logbook. This logbook is available in the software, to track actions. So rest assured, there won’t be any surprises. The Visualfabriq trade spend management software has a role-based workflow. This means that organizations determine themselves who is allowed to perform what action. It is also possible to add approval rules such as thresholds. All to make sure any action on the platform is entirely audit proof.

Can we assign approval limits by role (the sales organization reflected for approval hierarchy)?

The Visualfabriq trade spend management software has a role-based workflow. This means that organizations determine themselves who is allowed to perform what action. It is also possible to add approval rules such as thresholds. All to make sure any action on the platform is entirely audit proof.

Does Visualfabriq’s software allow me to settle claims for my trade spend?

It definitely does! The Trade Spend Master fully integrates with the Visualfabriq Claims module. All claims for non-promoted spend, such as contractual investments, can be handled.

What if I have a risk or an opportunity, can I capture those too?

Of course! Visualfabriq knows there are things that might happen, but that should not be in ERP just yet. However, representation in the revenue forecast is key: an opportunity to increase prices, or an account that threatens to submit an additional claim. Visualfabriq enables commercial teams to simply capture risks and opportunities and make them visible throughout the software.

Does Visualfabriq support volume impact calculation from pricing elasticity on different product levels?

Yes, Visualfabriq’s trade spend management solution supports the use of pricing elasticity models. Easily add co-efficients of regression models to the volume prediction model and start building scenarios for price changes.

Does Visualfabriq offer a connection to external sources of data?

Absolutely. The unique Bifrost data integration layer enables customers to both load data to the software and extract reports for use in external solutions.

Can I define a percentage of increase for COGS to simulate a new pricing scenario?

Yes, Visualfabriq’s trade spend management solution offers the standard core functionality to create scenarios. Add a COGS change and start simulating what pricing drift is required to retain profitability.

Does Visualfabriq allow to define RSP’s (retailer suggested price) in the trade spend management solution?

RSP’s are managed centrally in the Visualfabriq software. They can be used throughout the software where relevant.

Clip

“What we see now is that (AI) predictions are better than Manual predictions”

Data Scientist | Global Brewing Company

The Trade Spend Management software for the CPG market

We work with leaders in the CPG industry.

Group 1052
Unilever
Group 1053
Heineken