Process Hygiene: Why Clean Data Never Stays Clean
Process hygiene is the condition of the routines that create your data. What it is, the five failure patterns, and why data cleanups decay without it.
How to Dispute a Retailer Deduction, Portal by Portal
How to dispute a retailer deduction across Walmart, UNFI, KeHE, and Kroger: filing windows, the evidence that wins, and the mistakes that auto-deny.
KeHE Deductions: Reading Your Remittance Check Without Crying
A plain-English guide to KeHE deduction codes: MCB, EP, spoils, service-level fines. What each means, which you can dispute, and how to file in K-Solve.
Kroger Deduction Codes, Decoded: Lavante, PRGX, and the 180-Day Clock
A plain-English guide to Kroger deductions: shortages, list cost, EDI, and ORAD. What each means, which you can dispute in Lavante, and by when.
Walmart Deduction Codes, Decoded: Code 22, OTIF Fines, and What You Can Actually Dispute
A plain-English guide to Walmart deductions: Codes 22, 25, and 13, plus OTIF and SQEP fines. What each means, which you can dispute in APDP, and by when.
UNFI Deduction Codes, Explained: What Each One Means and Which You Can Dispute
A plain-English guide to UNFI deduction codes: MCB, INV, shortages, spoilage, and compliance fees. What each one means, which are disputable, and how to file a dispute that wins.
Which Channel Actually Pays After Every Deduction
Rank a $25M brand's channels by revenue and Walmart wins. Rank them by contribution after every deduction and the order scrambles. An interactive walk from gross revenue to the capital-allocation decision.
channel profitabilitycontribution margincapital allocationretail vs distributiondeductionsCPG finance
Retail Deductions: What You Write Off Without Checking
A $25M food brand writes off ~$67K in invalid retailer deductions a year without opening the file. Where the money hides in the data, and why it decays.
Trade Promotion Management: Where the Process Breaks Down
Trade promotion management data lives in three systems with three owners. 40% of small-brand trade spend goes unmeasured because nobody reconciles them.
EDI Reconciliation Stops at the Acknowledgment. Nobody Checks That the Contents Agree.
EDI reconciliation at most CPG brands stops at the 997. Quantities, prices, and item identities go unchecked across the PO lifecycle.
Contract to Cash: 15-25 Cents of Every Invoiced Dollar Disappears
Contract to cash: of every invoiced dollar, 15-25 cents disappears into deductions, chargebacks, and timing gaps. Most brands never calculate it.
Channel Profitability Analysis: Your Biggest Channel Is Rarely Your Best Investment
Channel profitability analysis ranks channels by contribution after trade, compliance, and deductions. The highest-revenue channel is often the lowest return.
Retailer Chargebacks: Four Root Causes, Most of the Damage
Most retailer chargebacks concentrate in four root cause categories. How to run the twelve-month diagnostic that maps each one to a fixable data field.
Specialty Food Brand Operational Costs: The Ten Decisions Behind $1.4M–$2.3M a Year
Ten decisions nobody owns drive specialty food brand operational costs of $1.4M–$2.3M a year. Each is answerable with data the brand already has.
The Supply Chain Data Quality Audit Nobody Has Run Yet
CPG deductions run 5-15% of gross sales. Net margins sit at 3-5%. A supply chain data quality audit traces the gap to twelve fields nobody has audited.
Trade Spend Optimization: Where Small Food Brands Lose Control
Specialty food brands spend 15-20% of revenue on trade promotions and can't say which worked. Trade spend optimization starts by connecting three data streams.