Astro Offers | Reports | Distributor Rebate Credit Batches & Distributor Free Goods Credit Status
Redemption Reports for Astro Offers
There are two main types of Astro Offers - Free Good Offers & Rebate Offers.
- Free Good Offers - These Offers reward the customer with a free item. They must purchase either a certain item or a certain number of items in order to receive an actual item for free. BOGO Offers, Buy 3 Get 1, etc fall under this category. Their redemption reports are compiled under the Distributor Free Goods Credit Status report. This is the same report that houses your Frequent Buyer free good redemptions.
- Rebate Offers - These Offers reward the customer with a set Dollar Off discount that is meant to be deducted from a specific item rather than from a total sale. Customers must purchase an item associated with the Rebate Offer in order to earn that set dollar off reward. These redemptions are compiled under Distributor Rebate Credit Batches. Since the dollar off discount is a set number, rather than a relative number associated with the redeeming of a Free Good, these reports will contain specific mention of money owed to you based on these redemptions.
Distributor Free Goods Credit Status Report
The Distributor Free Goods Credit Status report is housed under your Reports menu. Only Admin Users are able to reconcile the reports housed here.
This report portal contains all free goods that were redeemed by your customers via both Frequent Buyer and Astro Offers programs. This portal is divided into three folders: Uncredited Free Goods | Credited Free Goods | Reconciled Free Goods.
Uncredited Free Goods
These items have either just recently been redeemed on your Astro account, or they have been recently batched into a report by your distributor and are still being reviewed by their coupon/crediting department.
Credited Free Goods
Once a Batch Report has been marked as credited by your distributor it will move to this section of your portal so that you can now review the batch report and compare it to the credit memo sent to you by your distributor.
Most distributors include the Astro Batch ID associated with the batch report they credited on the credit memo they send to you. This number can then be used to match your credit memo with the batch report on Astro. If the Batch ID is not mentioned on the credit memo you should be able to match the date on the credit memo with the date the batch report was Fulfilled On.
These reports can contain both Frequent Buyer and Offer Free Good Redemptions since both kinds of programs reward free goods. If you click on the Batch Description then the Program Name you will see more details pertaining to the redemptions contained within the report, as well as find several Export options if you want to generate another copy for your records.
Once you are satisfied that the credit issued to you as reimbursement for the items redeemed is fair and accurate you can mark the batch report as Reconciled. This is done by clicking the red Reconcile button beside the Batch Report.
Do not mark a batch as reconciled if you are not content with the credit you received or if any of the items on the batch report have been marked as "Declined".
Once a batch report has been reconciled it will move to the Reconciled Free Goods section of your portal. These batch reports will remain here for safekeeping.
Reconciled Free Goods
The batch reports under Reconciled Free Goods have been both marked as credited by your distributor and then marked as reconciled by you, meaning you were satisfied in the way in which the batch report was credited by your distributor.
These batch reports are categorized according to the month in which they were marked as credited by your distributor.
All batch reports, when opened, will have the same Export options as the ones available under the Credited Free Goods section.
For a more detailed explanation of how to navigate Free Good reporting please review the full article on the Distributor Free Goods Credit Status report.
If you want to add your Cost Values to your Distributor Free Goods Status report so you can better plan for and match your memos to your reports please consult this article on our Advanced Fulfillment Report. This is something that we would need to enable on your account (there is no charge for this). We would also turn on the Manufacturer Pricing Maintenance Tool for you which will help you upload your Cost data onto your Astro account. You are responsible for maintaining your own Cost database since these values are not kept anywhere in Astro and they fluctuate so frequently.
Distributor Rebate Credit Batches Report
This report is housed under your Reports menu.
Only Admin Users are able to Reconcile these reports, Cashier Users are only permitted to view them.
The report is separated into three folders: Uncredited, Credited and Reconciled. The report will default to the first folder: Uncredited Rebates.
Uncredited Rebates
This section houses rebate redemptions that have either not yet been batched by your distributor, or they have been batched into a report but the distributor has not finished reviewing it.
What does "batched" mean?
Batching is the process of grouping individually reported redemptions into one report that contains multiple redemptions related to one another.
Distributors have their own fulfillment accounts on Astro. When they log into their Astro account they see a report very similar to the one you see. Their report contains three folders - Unbatched Rebates | Unfulfilled Rebates | Fulfilled Rebates. When a cashier redeems a Rebate Offer on your account it will show up under your distributor's Unbatched Rebates folder. From this folder the distributor can choose to either batch these individual redemptions according to the brand manufacturer or according to the retailer. Let's say the distributor batches according to the Brand Manufacturer- Plato, then that Batch Report will contain all retailers who have reported Plato redemptions recently. If they batch according to one retailer, then the Batch report will contain all brand redemptions reported recently by that single retailer.
When redemptions are batched into a batch report they will be assigned an Astro Batch ID Number. This Batch ID Number will be specific to the batch report, and all items included on that batch report will share the same Batch ID Number.
Items will be grouped in an outline-style. Your distributors will be listed, then below each distributor it will list the brand manufacturers whose programs are reporting to that distributor.
If you notice that a brand is listed under a distributor that you do not buy that brand from, or under a distributor you haven't bought that brand from recently, or under a distributor called "Temporary Holding"; then you will need to check your program's enrollment under your Offers > Enrolled menu and change your fulfillment partner to the correct distributor.
Once you correct the enrollment go back and check the Uncredited section of your report again. If the brand did not move under the distributor you just added to your program it means those brand goods have been batched onto a report already and Astro will need to move it for you. Email support@astroloyalty.com if you run into this.
To the right, under where it says Rebates, there will be a number. Think of this number as a dollar amount. In the image above $13 worth of Rebates were redeemed. If you want to see more details you can click on the distributor name or the retailer name to expand details (see below).
Now you can see the two Programs that were redeemed. If you were to click on the Program Name for each one it would expand details even more and you will be able to see the individual redemptions made for that Program and more details pertaining to that redemption.
The Uncredited folder is mainly there to show you to whom your current programs are reporting to and give you a chance to make any needed corrections to the program enrollment before an item is batched into a report.
Credited Rebates
This folder contains batch reports that have been marked as credited by your distributor. Once a batch report is marked as credited this is a sign to you that a credit memo is on its way to you from your distributor. Once you have your credit memo in your possession you can reconcile that memo with your credited batch report in Astro.
Under Credited Rebates you will notice a drop-down menu that will default to the last month a batch was credited. This folder will be organized according to the month in which a batch was marked as credited. You can use that drop-down menu to select and view a previous month's reports.
Below this drop-down menu you will see all of your distributors listed along with the brands whose redemptions were reported to them. To the right it will show the number of Rebates ($) that are itemized in each brand's reports.
To see the batch reports that were credited by that distributor for that month click on the Distributor's name.
Depending on how many batch reports were created and credited that month you will either see one or several. In this case we just see the one.
Astro Batch ID is the Batch ID Number that was assigned to all items credited in that batch report. If you have a question for your distributor pertaining to the crediting of a particular Batch Report, make sure to mention the Astro Batch ID associated with the report so your distributor can find the report in question on their Astro account quickly.
Batch Description is the name the distributor gave to the report when they batched it, this name will usually include the date and time the report was batched by the distributor.
Fulfillment will show the name of the distributor or your fulfillment partner. This is who credited this batch report.
Fulfilled On shows the date the distributor marked the batch report as credited on their fulfillment portal.
Rebates shows the total dollar amount of Rebates rewarded to your customers and then reimbursed back to you as credits by your distributor.
Above the list of Batch Reports there is a button "Export for Review". Clicking on this will export all batches listed below into one excel style report. You do not have to export anything out of Astro, but the option is there if you need it.
How to Open and View a Credited Batch Report & Export Copies of the Report
To open up a Batch Report to view it in greater detail and expose its Export Options click on the report's Batch Description.
This will open up the Batch Report so you can see the sum of its parts.
Mfg is the brand manufacturer whose program it was.
Program Name is the name of the Astro Offer that was redeemed.
Item Code is the UPC of the item that was discounted.
Item Description is the item that was discounted.
Fulfillment is in most cases the distributor you reported the program to. In other cases it could also be the brand manufacturer if they managed their own fulfillment.
Rebate is the dollar amount that was discounted to your customers that should now be reimbursed to you by your fulfillment partner.
This view is also where you can find additional export options.
Export Rebates Only is a spreadsheet style report that only shows details pertaining to the rebate redemptions. This report will include the Astro Batch ID, the Reward IDs for each redemption, the Distributor, the Customer's Name, Item UPC, Item Description, Date Redeemed, and the Rebate Amount.Generate Summary PDF will export the same information that would be included in the Export Rebates Only report into a PDF style report.Generate by Location PDF is only for Astro Retailers that have a Multi-Location Astro Account. This report is useful if you want to see your rebate redemptions grouped according to the store at which they were redeemed.Export Backup will generate a spreadsheet style export that will include every bit of data pertaining to the rebate redemptions. This will include the same information documented on the Export Rebates Only export as well as the full Location Name, Address, City, State, Zip where each redemption occured.
Reconciling a Rebate Report
What does it mean to Reconcile a report?
When you mark a batch report as Reconciled in Astro you are confirming that the credit issued to you by your fulfillment partner in reference to that batch report is accurate and you are satisfied with what was reimbursed to you. Do not mark a batch as reconciled if you mean to dispute what was credited to you with your distributor, or if an item on that batch has been marked as "Denied".
If a credit is denied it will be very clearly marked when you click on the Batch Description to examine the report's contents.
These Rebate Reports do not require as much of a side-by-side comparison with a Credit Memo as say a Free Goods report requires since the dollar amount on your credit memo should match the number recorded below Rebates. So in most cases you will not have to open up a batch report to be able to Reconcile it. If you need to though you can click on the Batch Description like we did above to expose all the Export options.
Otherwise all you need to do is...
- Take your credit memo that was sent to you by your distributor.
- Locate the Astro Batch ID Number on the credit memo.
- Most distributors will include this number on their credit memos now. If you cannot locate it you may need to click on the Batch Description and match the items included with what is mentioned on the memo. Or you can match the date on the memo with the date the batch was Fulfilled On.
- Now compare the monetary credit reimbursed to you on the credit memo to the number below Rebates on your batch report in Astro.
- If the numbers match, and you are satisfied that you have received the correct amount of credit, you can click the Reconcile button next to the Batch Report.
Upon clicking Reconcile you will be taken here:
If the distributor added any notes to the Batch Report such as Credit Reference, Credit Amount, or Batch Amount they will be mentioned here.
To commit to reconciling the batch report click the Mark Reconciled button. If you decide you do not want to reconcile click the Cancel button to return to the previous screen.
Once you mark a batch report as Reconciled it will move from your Credited Rebates folder to your Reconciled Rebates folder.
Reconciled Rebates
This folder will look very similar to the Credited Rebates folder.
There will be a drop-down menu that will let you view your batch reports according to the month in which they were credited.
Below you will see all the brand manufacturers grouped under the distributor that you reported their program redemptions to.
To view all the batches that you marked as reconciled that month by a particular distributor just click on the distributor's name.
If you need to access the Export buttons click on the report's Batch Description.
Once you have reconciled a report it will remain stored in your Reconciled folder so you can access it later if needed.
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