Schemes applied automatically, costed accurately
FMCG schemes change monthly and often overlap. Busy holds them as masters with validity dates: quantity-based free goods, value discounts, slab discounts, combination offers and period promotions, applied at billing without operator judgement.
Free goods are issued as scheme stock with their own batch, so the quantity leaves inventory properly and its cost is reported instead of silently reducing margin.
Scheme cost by company, brand and period is the report that tells you whether a promotion delivered volume or just gave away margin, and it is also the base document for your claim.
- Quantity, value, slab and combination schemes with validity
- Free quantity issued as tracked scheme stock
- Simultaneous primary and secondary scheme handling
- Scheme cost reporting by company, brand and period
Claims: the money most distributors leave behind
Scheme reimbursement, damage, expiry, price protection and display or visibility claims all follow the same pattern: they need invoice-level evidence and they need to be raised inside a window.
Busy accumulates each claim type per company with the underlying invoice and batch detail, prints the supporting statement in the layout the company expects, and shows claimed, received and pending balances as a running account.
Distributors who move from manual claim files to this typically recover a visible amount in the first year that was previously written off as unrecoverable.
Beats, routes, salesmen and van sales
Every invoice carries beat, route and salesman, so the daily review can ask precise questions: which beat billed below plan, which salesman is carrying the largest overdue, which outlets in a route stopped buying.
Van sales are handled by treating the vehicle as a godown: stock issued in the morning, billed through the day, reconciled on return, with shortages visible the same evening rather than at month-end.
Outlet coverage and non-buying-retailer reports show where the route is being skipped, which is usually a bigger revenue issue than pricing.
- Beat, route, area and salesman on every transaction
- Van as godown with issue, sale and return reconciliation
- Outlet coverage, productive calls and non-buying outlets
- Salesman-wise collection, outstanding and incentive base
Batch, expiry and damage handling
FMCG expiry is fast and unforgiving. Busy tracks batch with manufacture and expiry dates, issues on FEFO, and reports near-expiry stock at whatever horizon your companies' return policies allow.
Damaged and market-return stock is moved to a separate godown so it never gets billed by accident, and returns are posted against the original batch so the value written back is correct.
Because the near-expiry report carries value and supplier, it becomes an action list: rotate, push through a scheme, or return within the window.
Retailer credit and daily collection
Retail credit in FMCG is small per bill and large in aggregate. Busy enforces credit limit and days per retailer with warning or block, tracks bill-by-bill outstanding, and produces ageing by beat and salesman so collection is targeted rather than general.
Cheque, PDC and bounced-cheque handling plus automated reminders make the follow-up routine. The daily collection sheet by beat is usually the report field teams end up living on.
- Credit limit and days per retailer with warn or block
- Ageing by retailer, beat, route and salesman
- Daily collection sheet and deposit reconciliation
- PDC and bounced-cheque register with follow-up
Primary, secondary and principal reporting
Companies ask for primary purchases, secondary sales, closing stock and scheme utilisation, usually in their own layout and usually monthly. Busy produces these from the books as scheduled exports, so the submission stops being a manual assembly job.
Internally, comparing primary against secondary by brand exposes over-loading before it turns into expiry, which is the discipline that protects a distributor's working capital.
GST at FMCG volumes
The compliance workload in FMCG is driven by volume, particularly on the purchase side. Busy's GSTR-2A and 2B reconciliation lists missing and mismatched company invoices with values, so credit is chased while the month is still open.
E-invoice and e-way bill generate from the invoice screen individually or in bulk, and GSTR-1 and 3B come off the same books with correct treatment of scheme quantities, credit notes and returns.
How we implement for an FMCG distributor
The first task is documenting each principal's scheme and claim structure, because that drives most of the configuration. Then beats, routes and salesmen are set up, item and retailer masters imported, batch-wise opening stock loaded, and credit rules applied.
We stay close through the first month-end and the first claim cycle, since that is when the setup is genuinely tested, and train field, godown and accounts staff separately. Support afterwards is by phone, remote and on site around Pune and Maharashtra.
Where an FMCG distributor loses money and how Busy stops it| Leak | Busy control | Visible as |
|---|
| Unclaimed schemes | Scheme masters with cost reporting | Claim statement per company |
| Unrecovered damages | Damage claim accumulation | Claimed, received, pending balance |
| Expiry write-offs | Batch, FEFO and near-expiry alerts | Actionable near-expiry list with value |
| Stretched retailer credit | Limit and days with block at billing | Ageing by beat and salesman |
| Skipped outlets | Beat and coverage tracking | Non-buying outlet report |
