Trade Spend

Track marketing and promotional budget allocation at the customer and company level.

Trade spend represents the marketing and promotional investment you make to drive sales — sampling budgets, co-op advertising, promotional funding, and other commercial costs. ProFeT tracks trade spend at two levels: customer-level (linked to specific customers and SKUs) and Senior Trade Spend (company-level allocation not tied to a single customer).

Customer Trade Spend

Navigate to Commercial → Trade Spend to manage spend allocated to specific customer × SKU combinations.

Creating a Trade Spend Entry

Click Add Trade Spend and fill in:

Field	Description
Customer	Which customer the spend supports
SKU	Which product the spend is allocated to
Amount	The spend amount (£)
Category	Type of spend (e.g. Marketing, Sampling, Co-op)
Start Date	When the spend period begins
End Date	When it ends
Promotion	(Optional) Link to a specific promotion this spend supports
Notes	Context or business rationale

Linked to Promotions

Trade spend entries can be linked to a specific promotion. This creates a traceable connection between the money invested and the promotional deal it funds. Unlinked trade spend is treated as standalone commercial investment.

Booking Status

Like other commercial records, trade spend follows a status workflow:

Planned — Budgeted but not committed
Booked — Confirmed and committed
Active — Currently within the spend period
Completed — Past the end date

Senior Trade Spend

Navigate to Commercial → Senior Trade Spend for company-level spend that is not tied to a specific customer.

This is useful for:

Brand-level marketing campaigns
Category-wide promotional investment
General trade budget allocation
Overhead commercial costs

Senior Trade Spend entries have the same core fields as customer trade spend, except without a customer link. When the spend should be shared across several SKUs, ProFeT can split the amount into grouped entries during creation so the cost lands against each selected SKU.

How Trade Spend Affects the Forecast

Trade spend is allocated across forecast periods on a per-case basis. The forecast P&L includes trade spend as a cost line:

Contribution      = NSV − COGS − W&D
Free Contribution = Contribution − Trade Spend

Higher trade spend reduces free contribution but should (ideally) drive higher volumes through promotional activity, increasing GSV and NSV.

How Trade Spend Appears Across ProFeT

Where	What’s Shown
Dashboard	Total trade spend as a KPI tile with comparison
Live Forecast	Trade spend per case on each forecast line
Forecast Builder	Trade spend per case input in the P&L preview
Commercial Calendar	Trade spend entries on the unified timeline
Reconciliation	Reconciled status, evidence, and invoice references for commercial spend

Trade Spend Screens

Trade spend list by customer and SKU — Start at the trade spend list to review current allocations, status, and which customer × SKU lines are consuming budget.

Trade spend detail with amount and date range — Open trade spend detail to validate amount, category, date range, and optional promotion linkage before booking.

Overarching trade spend page for company-wide allocations — Use Senior Trade Spend for shared or brand-level costs that should not be tied to one customer.

Add trade spend form with customer, SKU, amount, category, and date fields — Use the add trade spend form to create new budget lines with complete scope and timing so forecast cost impact is accurate.