Trade Terms Belong Before the Chart

Invoice net is necessary and incomplete. Annual rebates, growth bonuses, and payment discounts often settle later. Commercial analysts who chart contribution from invoice alone will be surprised when finance closes the quarter.

Before we draw a margin waterfall, we ask for the standing trade-term sheet and the accrual method finance uses. Accrual timing changes which month looks soft.

Not every term maps cleanly to a SKU. Some sit at account or banner level. The waterfall should say so rather than force a fake SKU allocation.

When terms are renegotiated mid-year, annotate the change date on every chart that crosses it. Committees otherwise invent stories about demand when the real shift was contractual.

A short glossary in the reading guide — rebate, over-rider, payment discount — saves twenty minutes of definition debate in every meeting.