Rebates allow manufacturers to deliver affordable products to their customers without compromising their manufacturing techniques. In pharmaceutical companies, the rebate system controls drug costs by returning part of the purchase price to the buyer. The strategy helps negotiate drug discounts and relieves most of the pressure felt in the supply chain.
Implementing an ERP system will help leverage the rebate incentives in your pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. Modern ERPs like GoldFinch have an in-built rebate management functionality focused on helping your business realize its full potential. This article explains more about pharmaceutical rebate management and how your ERP helps.
Rebate Management Explained
Rebate management is a multistep process involving several departments in a manufacturing company aimed at where funds flow back through the supply chain. The process starts with recording supplier agreements and tracking purchases and sales. You’ll then use this information against the recorded agreements to manage accruals and rebate claims effectively and on time.
Unfortunately, managing rebates is daunting for most pharmaceutical companies because they deal with several products and suppliers. It becomes even more challenging if your team uses legacy systems like spreadsheets to execute rebate programs successfully. Note that a slight improvement in the rebate management process can contribute to discovering millions in revenue.
Over time, rebates encourage customer loyalty and increase purchase volume, which eventually helps incentivize trading. If you want to leverage rebates in your company, it’ll help to understand the strategy’s different perspectives. They are:
Supplier Rebates
They are also known as vendor rebates and are most common for distributors and merchants. It is a rebate agreement where you receive rebate payments from the supplier. You are most likely to enjoy these returns if you are on the purchasing side of the rebate agreement.
Customer Rebates
Manufacturers and merchants are most likely to leverage customer rebates. It involves your company making rebate payments to the customer and this happens when you are on the selling side of the agreement.
How ERPs Support Rebate Management
ERPs provide a practical approach to automating manual and repetitive tasks in your manufacturing process. The software plays a similar role in pharmaceutical rebate management; it eliminates resource-intensive manual processes, allowing your team to operate more efficiently.
Modern ERPs like GoldFinch come with advanced features, allowing your team to extract more value from your rebate programs. The automation achieved also allows them to focus more on key projects and campaigns.
Here is how ERP software helps achieve an effective rebate management system:
Streamlined Agreement Management
The most complex part of managing your rebate program is tracking the agreements. Most manufacturers deal with more than one product, handle several customers, and involve different stakeholders. However, an intelligent system gives your team ready access to agreements for smooth operations.
Implementing an ERP means you can effortlessly access the agreement’s terms and conditions, sales thresholds, payment tiers, and eligibility requirements. It would help to note that ERPs emphasize centralized storage, ensuring all company data is safe and traceable.
Accurate Accrual Tracking
Rebate management involves different departments in your firm, from finance to sales and marketing. Your finance team’s role is to keep up with on-time accruals to help identify how much you need to pay out and how much to receive.
An ERP system will help track customer performance in real time, improving your finance team’s efficiency. Since the manual input required is minimal, your accountancy personnel will get a more accurate picture of your rebate programs. It also supports faster customer payments, helps boost customer loyalty, and improves the program’s overall efficacy.
Advanced Analytics
Access to accurate data is just as important as the analytics capabilities used to decipher the data. Most modern ERPs come with advanced analytical capabilities that simplify performance tracking and payment. The system analyses key information, from customer profitability to margin performance, and helps provide accurate and valuable reports. You can significantly improve the program’s effectiveness through daily discovery and analysis with the right system.
Rebate Opportunity Notifications for Customers
The benefits of an efficient rebate management system extend past your internal team. Your sales team can leverage this system to close more deals by alerting prospective customers about upcoming discounts. The system makes it easy for your team to identify opportunities and alert customers about the available rebate options.
Your ERP software also automates reminders and streamlines analytics. It lets your sales team know when they’re getting closer to their rebate target. Eventually, your pharmaceutical manufacturing business will enjoy increased revenue and loyalty.
Automated Payments, Calculations, and Credits
Overseeing rebate payments, credits, and claims manually is a resource and time-intensive process. However, you can automate these processes by leveraging modern management tools in ERPs. The automation allows simple calculations and automatic payments, which reduces disputes and bottlenecks in your performance.
Why GoldFinch?
Few ERPs can effectively help streamline operations in your pharmaceutical company, like GoldFinch. This software has advanced features to ensure everything runs smoothly as you leverage rebates. According to their website, it features a multi-level formula management retail and distribution functionality perfect for the pharmaceutical industry.
Some of the features that make GoldFinch the perfect solution include the following:
- Multi-level formulas to help manufacture different products
- Quality control management
- Effective batch sizing and scaling
- Security management and audit trails
- Reliable lot tracking, serialization, and tracing
There are numerous benefits your internal team will enjoy from implementing a cloud-based rebate management software. They’ll get real-time visibility of their rebate status, making tracking progress and identifying potential problems easily. It also helps with compliance, which encourages productivity and smooth operations.
GoldFinch also supports integration with other software like CRM. The product is natively built on Salesforce to help improve data accuracy and efficiency. Other benefits include:
- Improved reporting by using advanced analytical tools
- Workflow automation
- Scalability support
Bottom Line
GoldFinch webs together different departments collects ERP data against rebate deals, and accurately calculates your earnings. Reach out today for a stress-free migration to a practical and resourceful pharmaceutical ERP configuration.
