13th-Month Problem: Calendars Kill Retail Margins
- The HRG Team
- Oct 1
- 1 min read
Retailers operate on week-based fiscal calendars that don’t always match your month-end close. Week 53 years, 4-5-4 patterns, and different “period” cut-offs can turn valid credits into “late credits,” or push accrued discounts across reporting boundaries—fueling avoidable disputes.
Where timing silently taxes you:
Co-op/MDF drift. The retailer's period 12 spans January–February; your accrual lands in February; their audit expects January.
Invoice windows. An otherwise valid credit memo misses the retailer’s period cut-off and looks “out of policy.”
Promo proof mismatch. Ad ran in their P11; your GL tagged it P12; audit flags “unsupported.”
Fictional vignette (clearly hypothetical): A snack brand books a $450K co-op accrual for a multi-week football promo. Retailer calendar shows two periods; the supplier’s GL shows one. The credit hits “late,” and the denial sticks—until calendars are reconciled.
Your Calendar Alignment Toolkit (simple, powerful):
Side-by-side calendars. Map your fiscal months to each retailer period, including week 53.
Period codes on every doc. Add retailer period IDs to invoices, credits, and support files.
Promo “chain of custody.” Keep plan docs, ad proofs, and traffic logs labeled with both calendars.
Close the checklist. Pre-close sweep for open credits that cross period boundaries.
Quarterly sync. Reconcile accruals vs. retailer settlements by shared period IDs, not just dates.
What’s at stake: Getting calendars in sync can cut “late/invalid credit” denials by 20–40%—and shrink investigation time dramatically.
