Monday, February 08, 2010
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by Tracy McQuilkin
Deductions are something every manufacturer we work with does differently. It seems no one has found the perfect way to handle deductions that is consistent across all companies.
We recently had a deep dive with a client’s deduction team. Most of the confusion was related to terminology and lack of understanding of what it takes to clear a deduction. Job shadowing was suggested to help with this client.
How do you handle deductions? What makes it so hard with your organization? We'd love to hear your feedback - click here to let us know what is working (or not working) in your organization.
Technorati tags:
deductions,
foodservice,
manufacturer
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
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Throughout recent history the Foodservice and Trade Spend Management industry, as well as much of corporate America, has used really cool big words to describe trends and philosophies.
From the early eighties, we had Total Quality Management (TQM), a management theory for defect reduction and heightened quality standards. Sun Tzu (that is him on the right), an ancient Chinese military general penned, “The Art of war” and a whole industry of management theorist began translating the logic of
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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If you monitor Twitter, Apple-related news, or technology gadgets in general, you probably know that the Apple tablet is being revealed - about right now, in fact (1:00 EST).
For years we’ve all tried to get the sales force to stop using the cocktail napkins as a preferred contract delivery method. Now with the advent of Apple’s revolutionary tablet computer, the game is changing for contract management. The new tablet (and future generations of tablets) will allows our apps to become a "dig
Monday, January 25, 2010
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by Greg Hilton
Answers Systems has kicked off an incredibly exciting product development roadmap for 2010. We are focused on delivering focused improvements in our core products, ContractPro® and ValuTrak®. In the design of this year’s major product and service releases, our team focused on some key needs for our customers:
Friday, January 22, 2010
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When Foodservice manufacturers first join our ContractPro® Community, they are typically settling a huge number of claims via distributor deduction. The manufacturer cannot process the distributors’ claims within payment terms, so the distributors just deduct.
In other words, the manufacturers are allowing their distributors to deduct claims from invoice payments…in essence, allowing the distributor to make the audit and payment decision. Bet the auditors love that!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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by Stacy Jackson
If you haven't already heard, a federal appeals court reversed the ruling on the Feesers vs. Michael Foods and Sodexo case. You may remember last summer (here's a link to that post) a lower court found Michael Foods and Sodexo guilty of violating the Robinson-Patman Act. Last week, Friday, January 8, that ruling was reversed.
Below are some links to that latest news:
Appeals Court Reverses Foodservice Pricing Pricing Ruling, Food Management
Third Circuit Rules that Food Service Management Companies and Distributors are Not Competitors for Robinson-Patman Act Analysis, USLaw.com
Michael Foods wins pricing case appeal, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Technorati tags:
Feesers v. Michael Foods,
Robinson-Patman Act,
Sodexo
Friday, January 08, 2010
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It's easy to match claims to contracts, right? You would think the answer is yes, and it should be. Yet, that's not always the case.
The issue we often find is that the contract that the distributor or operator customer has does not match what a user entered into the ContractPro application. When a contract creator chooses to create his or her own version of the contract (via spreedsheet or word processing software) instead of using the the system-generated contract documentation, things j
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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Interested in additional
ContractPro® training? The
ContractPro Support team is now offering monthly training webinars for all users. To view the training schedule, please click on “
Training” on the
Answers Systems home page and register for the session you would like to attend, if you have any questions, please contact
ContractPro Support.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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I recently watched a television show featuring a Snowman. My mind’s eye began to conjure up our foodservice industry in relation to the 3 parts of the Snowman. Go ahead and say it . . . I don’t have a real life!!! Maybe so, but let me tell you more about my vision.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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“So, Jay, what is ABC’s policy for the overpayment of claims from our distributors and restaurant operator customers?"
"Well, Bob, we really don’t have a policy on this, but I hear that our accounting department overpays claims by about 20%.”
"Wow, Jay, that sounds like a lot of money. How can ABC Co afford that?"