Most co-op programs live in a PDF, a rep's head, and a spreadsheet. We turn yours into a set of rules the system enforces for every location, every period, without anyone re-reading the PDF.
These are the same parameters we found across 1,286 published manufacturer plans. Yours will use a subset.
Percent of purchases, per-unit, or flat allocation. Prior-year or current-year basis. Monthly, quarterly, or annual funding. Carryover or forfeiture. Caps per period or per ad.
The share of an approved ad the brand pays: 50%, 75%, 100%, or any ratio, by tier, by program, or by campaign type. Applied automatically at checkout.
Which locations qualify: authorized status, tier, minimum purchases, account standing. Which products and media earn. Which costs are excluded, such as postage, agency fees, or production.
Logo, product imagery, copy, pricing, competitor exclusion. Encoded in the template library rather than a rulebook. See Compliance & Brand Protection.
Not creative approvals, which the templates make unnecessary. Spend approvals: the dollar amount above which a regional or corporate manager signs off. Usually one level, sometimes two, never five.
| The old way still the industry standard | Co-Op Managers |
|---|---|
| Rules live in a program document. Reps interpret them. Dealers call to ask. | Rules live in configuration. The system applies them. Dealers see the result. |
| Balances are calculated in a spreadsheet from purchase reports, monthly, by hand. | Balances update from purchase data as it posts. Imported from your ERP, a monthly file, or entered by our team. |
| Tier changes and new dealers require manual updates in several systems. | One roster. Change a tier once and every rule follows. |
| Nobody is sure how much fund liability is outstanding until year end. | Accrued, spent, pending, and expiring balances are visible for the whole network at any moment. |
Source: 1,286 manufacturer co-op plans with published terms, RECAS/CoopConnect data, analyzed by Co-Op Managers.
A program review walks through your current rules, where the manual work is, and what disappears when the program runs on Co-Op Command.