The Hidden Flaws in CPG Marketing Finance Reporting

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Introduction: Same Money, Different Languages

Finance and Marketing share the same budget from opposite ends of the battlefield. Finance sees ledgers, accruals, quarter-end precision and Accounting Standards compliance. Marketing sees campaigns, media plans, and in-market execution dates. Both care deeply about spending wisely and driving results, yet their tools and language have never aligned.

That disconnect leads to friction, duplicate work, and unreliable data. Marketers fill out spreadsheets to satisfy Finance, and Finance questions the validity of the numbers. Everyone loses.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Most CPG Functions Have Their Systems, Marketing Needs One Too

Finance has always had its home base: the General Ledger (GL) and the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). These are essential to provide accurate views of actuals and future forecasts as well as Corporate Reporting. This information is critical for leadership decision-making and shareholder reporting.

Marketing has lacked an equivalent system. Until recently, their “system” was a folder of Excel files on a shared drive. That’s not a system. That’s a workaround.

Shopperations fills that gap by becoming a singular source for both Finance and Marketing. Marketing now has a place to plan programs in detail including tactic type, retailer, start and end dates, etc. They have flexibility to efficiently adjust forecasts or load actual results without version management of Excel spreadsheets. Finance can export data for accruals, lock closed periods from changes, capture new forecasts as needed. Both teams now have a shared source and see the same data. Both teams get the information they need, reducing friction and confusion. It’s a win-win!

Why Marketing Should Not Be Doing Accruals

This may sound blunt, but it needs to be said: Marketers should not be in charge of phasing accruals.

They’re not accountants. They’re not close to the GL. And they shouldn’t have to guess how to spread $250,000 redemption fees across periods just to get a finance tracker filled in.

When marketers are asked to manually phase spend, here’s what happens:

They guess
They copy from last month
They fudge to hit targets

Even the best-intentioned marketers don’t have the tools or expertise to do this accurately. And Finance knows it.

Manual phasing and accruals are fundamentally flawed because they rely on people to apply rules they often don’t fully understand. There are real, nuanced accounting principles behind how marketing spend should be phased—rules that vary based on spend type, tactic, and even internal policy. Most marketers aren’t trained in these rules, and, frankly, even some Finance professionals struggle to apply them consistently. For example, coupon redemption fees are typically accrued very differently from media spend. Some CPGs front-load coupon accruals in the first few weeks after distribution, others book the entire amount on the launch date, and still others phase it across months. Media, on the other hand, is often phased by day or week depending on insertion order timing. Relying on spreadsheets and manual inputs to capture all of that logic is not just inefficient, it’s a recipe for inconsistency and audit risk.

The better approach: Let marketers focus on what they do know: plan details, start and end dates, expected spend, and tactic type. Feed those inputs into a structured system that applies pre-defined, Finance-approved logic to calculate accrual phasing.

Shopperations: The Translator Between Planning and Accounting

Shopperations doesn’t replace Finance systems, it complements them by translating marketing activity into financial logic.

It does this by:

Capturing all plan inputs in a structured, time-bound way
Applying configurable phasing logic based on tactic type, GL or WBS
Generating monthly snapshots that can’t be altered retroactively
Enabling variance reports that show exactly what changed, why, and when

Here's how the accrual process works in practice:

Marketing updates their latest plans in Shopperations, adjusting tactic dates, budgets, or descriptions based on the most recent activity.
Finance pulls a report: a system-generated, formula-based accrual file based on the updated plans.
Finance loads monthly accruals to GL.
Finance updates forecasted periods in ERP, if needed.
Finance identifies variances for actuals and forecasts to the previous locked version, highlighting significant variances by brand, tactic, or spend type.
Marketing reviews those variances, flags any data entry errors, and provides explanations.
Finance finalizes the version and “locks” the period, saving the report as an immutable snapshot for audit and alignment.

Voila! No more guesswork, no more manually “peanutbuttering” of dollars across periods. Just structured plans, transparent collaboration, and audit-ready accuracy.

Shopperations doesn’t replace Finance systems, it complements them by translating marketing activity into financial logic.

It does this by:

Capturing all plan inputs in a structured, time-bound way
Applying configurable phasing logic based on tactic type, GL or WBS
Generating monthly snapshots that can’t be altered retroactively
Enabling variance reports
Providing changes logs that show exactly what changed, why, and when

Finally, Finance doesn’t have to be the translator which often requires guesswork and often inconsistent process. Now they have a systematic, repeatable and reliable solution.

Conclusion: Shared Truth, Shared Success

The disconnect between Finance and Marketing isn’t personal, it’s structural. The answer isn’t more meetings or better spreadsheets. It’s a shared system that speaks both languages.

Finance will never care about campaign names. Marketing will never care about GL codes. But both care about the truth behind the numbers.

Shopperations provides that truth. One system for marketers to plan. One source for Finance to trust. And a better way for everyone to work together.

Need Help Translating Between Marketing and Finance?

If you're a CPG leader looking to bridge the gap between Marketing plans and Finance reporting, there are two places to start:

Connect with Heidi Nagle on LinkedIn for expert advice on Marketing and Sales Finance strategy. With years of in-the-trenches experience, she knows exactly what Finance needs to feel confident in the numbers.
Request a Shopperations demo to see how we automate the translation of Marketing inputs into finance-ready outputs. We’ll show you how to replace spreadsheet chaos with system-driven clarity.

Let’s build the bridge together.