Automating dealer rebate calculation, from raw data to personalised letter
A rebate calculation that took five days of manual work, automated from raw data to a personalised letter, in about fifteen minutes.
- Role
- Business analyst & developer
- Period
- A few weeks, 2025
- Before / after
- 5 days → about 15 minutes
- Sources
- 3 systems
The challenge
An international manufacturer runs a rebate programme for its dealer network, based on their digital marketing activity and commercial performance. The calculation, previously manual, took five working days each time and relied on data from three different systems.
The rebate amount depended on several separate factors: whether a tracking module was present on the dealer's website, their social media activity, their actual turnover and how regularly they submitted their sales figures. Each element lived in a different system: web tracking, a survey tool for social media activity and the commercial management system for turnover. Collecting and cross-referencing this data manually, dealer by dealer, took several days per calculation, with the risk of errors increasing as the number of dealers grew.
The friction points at the start
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Friction 01
Three data sources
Web tracking, a survey tool and the commercial system, cross-checked dealer by dealer.
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Friction 02
Five days per calculation
Manual work at every deadline.
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Friction 03
A growing risk of error
The more dealers, the higher the risk.
The approach
The calculation was fully automated, from data extraction through to the final letter. Website activity and social media posts are pulled automatically from their respective systems. Sales figures are integrated as soon as they become available, with a progressive calculation logic that rewards regular submission rather than a single late submission at the end of the year.
A specific rule was introduced for dealers belonging to the same commercial group. They share the group's best performance rather than being assessed individually, an important business rule for maintaining fair treatment between related entities.
Once the calculation is complete, a personalised letter is generated automatically for each dealer, in their language, detailing the amount earned and the factors behind it. A review interface was also built so that a specific case can be adjusted manually and the corresponding document regenerated immediately, without rerunning the entire calculation.
Sending the letters to dealers was integrated directly into the company's email system, with the option to save them as drafts for review before final sending.
What was delivered
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An automated calculation
From data extraction to the final letter, with progressive logic that rewards regular submission.
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Group rules
Dealers in the same group share the group's best performance.
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A review interface
Adjust a specific case and regenerate its document without rerunning everything.
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Personalised letters
In each dealer's language, sent from the company's email, with a draft to review first.
The result
A calculation that used to require five days of manual work now runs in about fifteen minutes. Commercial teams can still adjust a specific case without relying on IT, and each dealer receives a clear, personalised letter explaining how their rebate was calculated.
What the project made possible
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About fifteen minutes
Instead of five days of manual work.
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Adjustments without IT
Commercial teams correct a specific case themselves.
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A clear letter per dealer
Explaining how the rebate was calculated.
Key takeaways
This project shows how to automate a calculation that depends on several disparate data sources without giving up the ability to make a one-off manual adjustment.
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Automate without locking in
Keep the option of a one-off manual adjustment.
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Fine-grained rules matter
Treat performance sharing within a group as a proper scenario.
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A readable result
For the final recipient, not just a calculation file.
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Five days of manual calculation can sometimes become fifteen minutes
If a task combines several data sources, business rules and repeated manual checks, it may be worth looking at what can be automated.