Case Studies

From Control Gaps to a Clear Roadmap: How a Candy Manufacturer Audited Its Trade Promotion Environment

3 minute read

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: After migrating to SAP S/4HANA, a candy manufacturer needed independent confidence that its trade promotion accrual was accurate and defensible. Catena Solutions conducted an independent Trade Promotion Audit across people, policy, process, and system, identifying 45 findings with recommended actions. The audit showed that most improvements could be achieved through configuration and governance within the existing BluePlanner investment, giving leadership a prioritized roadmap for internal audit reporting, business cases, and remediation planning.

Project at a Glance:

• 45 Findings: Across TPM management, data management, deductions and payments, and policies
• 22 Findings Actionable Within 30 Days: Near-term improvements ready for action
• 29 Low-Effort Findings: Opportunities that can be addressed with limited effort
• <10% of Promotions Reviewed Carried a Customer Contract: Exposing a documentation gap
• 2,700+ Delisted Items in the Item Pick List: Contributing to planning against “ALL ITEMS” and reduced traceability
• 5-Week Review: Of how trade spend is planned, approved, documented, and cleared

The Challenge: Why Did the Manufacturer Need an Independent Trade Promotion Audit?

Following its transition from SAP to SAP S/4HANA, the manufacturer had experienced issues with data moving from SAP S/4HANA into BluePlanner. Adjustments had been made, and the team believed the accrual was accurate, but validating that it was being captured correctly remained a top priority.

The environment was complex, with approximately 2,600 active promotions, more than 100 users, broker involvement, and multiple data handoffs. The company needed confidence not only in the number, but also in the promotion-entry practices, approvals, policies, deductions, data flows, and system design behind it. Leadership also needed to separate immediate configuration and governance improvements from larger system-level changes.

The Solution: How Did Catena Audit the Trade Promotion Environment?

Catena Solutions deployed a consultant with deep expertise in trade promotion management, TPM systems, governance, and Food & Beverage and CPG operations. With experience spanning sales, category management, finance, and pricing, work across more than 20 TPM tools, and more than 15 years of involvement in leading industry organizations, the consultant assessed BluePlanner as part of the full process of planning, approving, accruing, documenting, deducting, and clearing trade spend.

The engagement began as an accrual validation need and grew into a broader audit.

This included:

• Interviewing sales team members across channels, along with Sales Finance and Accounts Receivable stakeholders
• Reviewing policies, BluePlanner approvals, workflows, guardrails, master data, reason codes, spend types, metrics, and profiles
• Assessing deduction policies, matching, approvals, and distributor and non-distributor promotional activity
• Reviewing up to one year of activity, data integrations, scheduling, and error logs
• Benchmarking current practices against TPM industry leading practices
• Consolidating evidence from multiple teams, channels, promotion types, and integrations into one consistent assessment
• Delivering a 45-finding audit report, BluePlanner observations, weekly updates, and an executive findings readout

The Benefit: What Did the Trade Promotion Audit Uncover?

Catena documented findings across TPM management, data management, deductions and payments, and policies, including 3 rated High severity, 18 Medium, and 24 Low. The audit surfaced controls that depended on user behavior rather than system enforcement, master data conditions that encouraged planning against ALL ITEMS, and practices that weakened traceability.

Two data points show the scale of the gaps:

• Fewer than 10% of promotions reviewed carried a customer contract, limiting documentation for audit and defense of trade spend
• More than 2,700 delisted items remained in the item pick list, contributing to ALL ITEMS planning and reduced traceability

The assessment also showed that the manufacturer did not need to replace BluePlanner to make progress. Most improvements could be pursued through configuration and governance within the existing investment, and the prioritization made the starting points clear:

• 22 findings actionable within 30 days: Near-term improvements ready for immediate action
• 29 findings rated Low effort: Opportunities that can be addressed with limited resources
• 45 findings with documented impacts and recommended actions: Prioritized by severity, effort, and business impact, and suitable for internal audit reporting and business cases

Ultimately, the engagement gave leadership a decision-ready roadmap for remediation planning and for determining where additional support may be needed. Financial benefits can be quantified once the manufacturer prioritizes recommendations, defines implementation scope, and sets measurable baselines.