Customer rebate management for plumbing and HVAC suppliers
Growth in the plumbing and HVAC industry means expanding your distribution channels, becoming a supplier of choice and mastering the art of competitive pricing.
Attractive customer rebate programs can help your business achieve all three goals. Managed properly, customer rebates encourage positive buying behaviors from your customers, but in practice, they’re very hard to manage – especially if you’re using spreadsheets.
Enable’s collaborative platform lets you turn customer rebates into a strategic engine of growth for you and your customers. With full visibility of all your customer rebate agreements, plus automated accruals and real-time reporting, you can work strategically with your customers to build their business and yours.
Transforming customer rebate management in the plumbing and HVAC suppliers industry

From inconsistent rebate management and missed opportunities…
A home-grown system made rebate data hard to extract without specialist skills
Some buyers were very focused on maximizing rebates, but others weren’t
Buyers lacked Excel skills to separate high rebate value items from lower-value ones
…to an easy-to-use system that maximizes rebate income
Streamlined rebate management and reporting across the organization
An easy system for all buyers to use to manage and maximize rebates earned
Integration with Epicor ERP means a single source of truth for transaction and rebate data

From an opaque system and missed rebates…
Difficult to capture forward-looking information about when rebates would be earned
Rebate revenue forecasts could not be confidently submitted to the leadership team
$500,000 in rebates earned was not received, driving a search for a better solution
…to trustworthy data and stronger cashflow management
More proactive with vendors about rebates owed, backed up with solid data
Closer alignment with suppliers’ business plans, leading to win-win deals
Ability to track and forecast rebates for easier cashflow management and decision-making

From manual processes and an overwhelming workload…
Tried all sorts of ways to manage rebates, from Excel spreadsheets to custom Access databases
Manually managing hundreds of deals with hundreds of suppliers was overwhelming
It was hard to identify opportunities to maximize rebate earnings
…to automation and accurate reporting
Enable has automated rebate management, freeing up time and avoiding the need to hire
Reports are accurate and easy to run without recourse to a rebate “gatekeeper”
Enable’s intuitive system meant minimal training was needed to start managing rebates

A major player in the plumbing and HVAC market…
Canada’s leading national distributor of plumbing, HVAC/R and PVF products
Coast-to-coast network of over 220 branches supported by a streamlined supply chain
Largest inventory in the country of leading-brand faucets and fixtures
…is also a leader in rebate management
Enable’s interface and workflow allow easy collaboration between Purchasing and Finance
All trade agreements are documented in a central repository, creating a single source of truth
A shared digital workspace allows agreements to be reviewed and discussed with suppliers

From manual rebate calculations that tied up time…
Thousands of complex rebate terms between 800+ suppliers and 850 distributors
All rebate calculations were managed manually in Excel by a team of four people
No bandwidth to build supplier relationships and negotiate better deals
…to a growth engine supported by automated rebate management
Automated rebate management processes with Enable
Scaled from $31bn to $45bn in collective revenue while remaining operationally efficient
Continued to return 100% of rebate earned to its members