Your CPA signs.
Aurgus runs the close.
Vendor rebates reduce COGS under ASC 705-20 — not revenue, not other income. Getting the direction right every period requires a close built for it. Aurgus is designed so the month-end rebate close takes hours to review, not analyst-weeks to rebuild.
$600/month · Design-partner phase · Not a free tool
705-20 reduces COGS.
606 reduces revenue. They are not the same.
Every vendor rebate sits at the intersection of two codification sections — and the direction of the entry is determined by who the customer is in the arrangement. CAS firms and distributors that handle both sides frequently mis-route rebates, producing margin statements that overstate revenue on one side and understate inventory cost on the other.
The direction rule (Primary guidance: ASC 705-20-25-1)
| Arrangement | Codification | Direction | Entry flows to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consideration received from a vendor (purchase rebate, volume allowance, co-op) | ASC 705-20 | Reduce COGS | Inventory → COGS as goods sell |
| Consideration paid to a customer (customer rebate, promotional allowance) | ASC 606-10-32 | Reduce revenue | Variable consideration → net revenue |
| Advertising / promotional services at fair value received from vendor | ASC 705-20 exception | Other income | Fair value of service → income only |
Primary guidance: ASC 705-20-25-1 through 25-4; ASC 606-10-32-25. Not accounting advice — verify with your auditors.
The labor isn't the accounting entry.
It's the assembly work before it.
The ASC 705-20 close requires recomputing every vendor's rebate tier from purchase history, reconciling every accrual to the latest estimate, and explaining every true-up to your audit team — every period. That rebuild is what consumes analyst time.
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1
Pull raw purchase data from the ERP
Every SKU, every vendor, every location. File exports from SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, or any ERP. Rebate tiers reference cumulative YTD purchase volumes — so a mid-year vendor program change forces a full recalculation from Jan 1.
-
2
Recompute every tier and estimate
Tiered rebate structures require comparing YTD volume to each bracket, applying the marginal or retroactive rate, and projecting year-end attainment. Most firms do this in a master spreadsheet that gets rebuilt — not updated — each period.
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3
Reconcile accruals to settlements
Vendor check or credit memo arrives; the accrual must be compared to it. Differences require explanation. The difference is a true-up entry — which triggers another recompute next period.
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4
Assemble the audit binder
Your audit firm wants to trace every COGS-reduction entry back to the source purchase transaction and the vendor contract. Assembling that lineage from spreadsheet exports takes another week.
The recomputation runs before the close.
The CPA reviews a governed output.
Aurgus is designed so every recomputation happens as data lands — not at month-end. By the time your CPA opens the close checklist, the accruals are already computed, the exceptions are flagged, and every entry has full lineage to its source transaction.
File-based ERP intake
Upload your purchase data export from any ERP — SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, Acumatica, Odoo, or a CSV. Aurgus works alongside your existing system; no native integration required today.
Deterministic recomputation
Same inputs, same number. Every tier, every estimate, every COGS reduction is recomputed on a deterministic engine. Aurgus is designed so the recompute is a CPU operation, not an analyst rebuild.
Estimates are owned decisions
Year-end attainment projections are estimates — and estimates require judgment. Aurgus records each estimate as an owned decision with the reviewer's name, the assumption, and the date. Not an anonymous cell that gets rebuilt each period.
Your CPA signs; Aurgus built the binder
Every COGS reduction entry traces back to its source PO line. The audit binder is a side-effect of normal operation, not a separate assembly project. The CPA reviews and approves a governed output — the close is built to take hours, not weeks.
Settlements and true-ups append, not overwrite
When a vendor settlement arrives, Aurgus appends a Settlement event to the existing Accrual chain. The true-up is computed, the difference is explained, and the correcting entry is ready. The record is immutable — audit firms can follow the chain.
Built for multi-vendor, multi-location portfolios
Distributors managing 40+ vendor programs and CAS firms running close for multiple clients need a system that scales. Aurgus is designed to handle the full vendor portfolio, not one program at a time on a tab-per-vendor spreadsheet.
What changes when the close
is a review, not a rebuild.
| Close task | Spreadsheet | Aurgus |
|---|---|---|
| Recompute vendor tiers from purchase history | Manual rebuild each period | Runs as data lands |
| Direction: 705-20 COGS vs 606 revenue | Analyst judgment on each entry | Rule-encoded in the engine |
| Year-end attainment estimate | Anonymous cell; rebuilt by whoever closes | Owned decision, named reviewer, dated |
| Accrual-to-settlement reconciliation | Manual line-by-line each settlement | Settlement event appended; diff computed |
| Audit lineage: entry → PO line | Assembled the week auditors arrive | Side-effect of normal operation |
| Mid-year program change → retroactive recalc | Full rebuild of master spreadsheet | Recompute from stored event chain |
| Multi-vendor, multi-location | One tab per vendor; one file per location | Single governed ledger |
CAS firms and distributors
running the rebate close for clients.
CAS / advisory firms
Your clients' vendor rebate programs are growing — so is the close time your team bills against them. Aurgus is built so the billable work is reviewing a governed output, not running the recomputation yourself. Your CPA signs; Aurgus built the binder. $600/month per client entity — the compression in close hours is the ROI.
Distributors with 20+ vendor programs
Multi-tier vendor programs across a large SKU catalog require a system built for the volume. The close your controller runs today is designed to take weeks because the recomputation is manual. Aurgus is designed so the controller's job is review and approval — not assembly.
Controllers managing the annual audit
Your audit firm's rebate questions used to be answerable with a binder assembled the week they arrived. Increasingly, they want reproducible lineage — source PO to accrual to settlement to true-up — traced without interpretation. Aurgus writes that lineage as a side-effect of normal operation.
$600/month.
Not a free tool. Not SAP.
Aurgus is a paid close-operations product. It is not a free tier with an enterprise upsell, and it is not a large-ERP configuration project. The design-partner price is $600/month — for one entity running the full ASC 705-20 rebate close through Aurgus.
Design-partner phase: we run your real vendor rebate data in parallel and measure the difference in close time and audit-binder quality against your current process. No invented results — the first evidence is yours.
Not accounting advice. Consult your audit firm on ASC 705-20 applicability.
What CAS firms ask
before the first session.
Does a vendor rebate reduce COGS or count as income?
Under ASC 705-20, consideration received from a vendor reduces the cost of the
vendor's products — not income. The reduction flows to inventory while the goods are
on hand and to COGS as they sell through. The exception: if the vendor is compensating
for a specifically identifiable benefit (e.g., advertising) and the fair value of that
benefit can be measured, only the excess over fair value reduces cost of goods; the fair-value
portion is income. Otherwise the full amount reduces COGS.
Primary guidance: ASC 705-20-25-1. Not accounting advice.
How is vendor rebate accounting different from customer rebate accounting?
Vendor rebates (consideration received from a vendor) are governed by ASC 705-20 and reduce COGS. Customer rebates (consideration paid to a customer) are governed by ASC 606-10-32-25 and reduce revenue — they are variable consideration that reduces the transaction price. Getting the direction wrong in either direction produces a misstated margin line and a misstated revenue line simultaneously.
What ERP does Aurgus require?
None. Aurgus works via file-based intake today — a purchase data export from SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, Acumatica, Odoo, or any ERP in CSV or structured format. No native ERP integration is required to run the close. We work alongside your existing system.
What does "your CPA signs, Aurgus runs the close" mean practically?
It means the recomputation, the accrual calculation, the accrual-to-settlement reconciliation, and the audit lineage are produced by Aurgus as governed outputs. Your CPA or controller reviews those outputs, owns the judgment calls on estimates, and approves the final entries. The close is designed to take hours for the person who reviews — the assembly and recomputation work is moved out of the close entirely.
How does Aurgus price for CAS firms managing multiple clients?
$600/month is per entity in the design-partner phase. CAS firms running the rebate close for multiple clients would run each client entity through Aurgus separately. We're in design-partner stage — pricing for multi-client advisory practices is something we work through directly. Book a working session and we'll walk through your portfolio.
Download the full close checklist
32 audit tests across ASC 705-20 accrual documentation, tiered threshold tracking, variance analysis, and month-end sign-off.
Run your next rebate close
in hours, not analyst-weeks.
Book a 30-minute working session. We'll run a sample of your vendor rebate data through the Aurgus engine and show you exactly where the compression comes from. No slide deck — a working session.
Book 30 min with the Aurgus team →