For Poppi, Improving Deductions & Accrual Accuracy Came Down to One Thing

Poppi, the fast-growing prebiotic soda brand partly responsible for creating an entirely new category of better-for-you beverages, has scaled quickly across national retail channels in the last few years - culminating in its acquisition by PepsiCo in 2025.

In 2024, the Poppi team was searching for a solution to help them deal with increased complexity in trade spend, deduction management, and accrual accuracy. But as a fast-moving team, they were looking for more than just software. Hear from Ayyaz Zakaria, CFO at Poppi, on why they chose Promomash and what made the difference in solving their trade and deduction challenges.

The Problem: No Systematic Way to Track Deductions or Validate Accruals

As Poppi expanded, their finance team lacked a consistent, reliable system for tracking deductions and managing accruals. This created two core challenges:

• Limited visibility into where trade dollars were going

• Difficulty ensuring accruals would stand up to financial scrutiny and due diligence

At the same time, Poppi needed more than just software. Traditional trade promotion management (TPM) tools often provided features—but not the speed, flexibility, and support required to implement them effectively.

Why Poppi Chose Promomash: It Comes Down to Ownership

Poppi ultimately chose Promomash not just for its platform, but for its hands-on partnership model. As Zakaria put it:

“We saw a CEO that seemed really committed and joining our meetings...and we saw a team just extremely involved. We needed agility, speed and attention versus out-of-the-box features.”

From the beginning, Promomash stood out for its level of ownership and involvement:

• Direct access to a highly responsive team

• Leadership engagement, including the CEO joining weekly calls

• Fast problem-solving without relying on ticketing systems

This approach enabled Poppi to move faster and adapt quickly - something critical for a high-growth CPG brand on the cusp of a billion-dollar acquisition.

The Solution: Structured Deduction Management & Accurate Accruals

With Promomash, Poppi implemented a more structured and reliable approach to deduction management and accrual tracking. Key capabilities included:

• Building accruals that passed a rigorous due diligence process

• Tracking deductions with greater accuracy and consistency

• Gaining clear visibility into trade spend and financial performance

Equally important, the Promomash team took on much of the execution work - reducing internal burden and accelerating implementation.

Results: Better Visibility, Stronger Accrual Confidence, Less Operational Burden

Since implementing Promomash, Poppi has seen meaningful improvements in its financial operations including:

• More accurate and defensible accruals

• Improved visibility into deductions and trade spend

• Reduced manual workload for the finance team

• More time spent on analysis vs. execution

According to Zakaria, the impact goes beyond the software itself.

“The system can do one thing...but it’s really the people driving the issues that make or break the implementation.”

This combination of technology, ownership and execution has been key to the success of the partnership.

Path Forward: Scaling Deduction Management & Financial Operations

As Poppi continues to grow under PepsiCo, maintaining control over deductions, accruals, and trade spend will remain a top priority. With Promomash, they now have:

• A scalable system for financial operations

• A partner that moves at their pace

• A foundation for improving trade promotion management over time

Key Takeaway: In Trade Promotion & Deduction Management, Execution Matters

For CPG brands evaluating trade promotion or deduction management solutions, Poppi’s experience highlights an important truth:

The success of any TPM or deduction management system depends not just on the software - but on the people behind it.

The combination of platform capabilities and hands-on ownership Promomash has been able to provide made the difference for Poppi in bringing structure, accuracy, and clarity to its financial processes at scale.