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The Challenge
Trade spend is one of the biggest levers in a CPG business. But for most brands, it's also one of the least visible.
Before joining Cerebelly, this sales leader had never used a system like TrewUp. And like many in CPG, they were used to a familiar—and costly—workflow:
- Distributors send over bulk invoices
- Deductions are lumped together
- Visibility is limited
The result? Not just wasted time. Wasted margin.
"Distributors give you their blanketed invoices… and you're like, what am I doing from this?"
Without retailer-level clarity, there's no way to know if spend is accurate, tied to the right program, or quietly eroding profitability. Every cycle, the same questions repeat—and margin leaks go undetected.
The Solution
When she joined Cerebelly, a colleague introduced her to TrewUp. Initial reaction? Skeptical. "It took me a little bit of getting used to."
But that quickly changed—not just in how she processed deductions, but in how she could actually see and manage trade spend for the first time.
1. Fully Transparent—by Retailer, by Program, by Month
Instead of one massive invoice, deductions are broken down by distributor (like UNFI), then by retailer (like Sprouts Farmers Market), then by month and program. For the first time, Sales and Finance were working from the same picture.
"It breaks it down individually… it is super simplified."
2. Easy to Validate—in Minutes, Not Days
The drill-down is exactly as intuitive as it sounds: pull up UNFI, click into Sprouts, open August, and immediately see whether each deduction ties to a promotion, slotting fee, or expected spend.
"Oh, I ran a promotion. Yep—check. I've got slotting—check."
3. A Single Source of Truth for Trade
No more jumping between systems, emails, and spreadsheets. Everything needed to validate, dispute, and understand trade spend is in one place — and pulling it together doesn't create extra work.
"It really just simplifies everything for me in a one-stop shop."
The Result
$17K Recovered—and a Margin Problem Caught Early
During a routine check — one of two she does each month — she spotted a major issue: a smaller retailer had issued a large, incorrect deduction that would have likely gone unnoticed in a traditional workflow. In a business where trade spend is one of the biggest P&L levers, $17K showing up undetected isn't just an admin problem — it's a margin problem.
With TrewUp, the error was identified quickly, documentation was already organized, and the dispute process was seamless.
"TrewUp was the one that found it for us."
From Weeks to Minutes
What used to require pulling distributor data, tracking down deduction details, and emailing back and forth across partners now takes a few clicks — validate, confirm, send.
"It was like boom, boom, boom… so easy."
From Firefighting to Proactive Management
Now, instead of reacting to issues after the fact, she logs in a couple of times a month, gut-checks expected vs. actual spend, and catches discrepancies before they compound. Trade spend isn't being reacted to anymore — it's being managed.
Looking Ahead
Right now the primary use is validation — and that alone has already paid for itself many times over. But the opportunity doesn't stop there. The trade spend data is already there, already organized by retailer and program. Moving from validation to full trade analysis — tracking spend as a rate of sales, identifying trends by retailer, optimizing promotions over time — doesn't require extra work. It's already built in.
"It pulls it all down for you — so it's not like it's extra work."
With TrewUp, every cycle builds on the last. The data gets cleaner, the decisions get sharper, and trade spend becomes a managed lever — not a recurring mystery.
