The Off-Invoice Control Index: how defensible are your rebate numbers, really?

Rebates, billbacks, trade promotions, incentives, and pricing agreements move roughly 15–25% of a manufacturer’s revenue — among the largest P&L lines after COGS — and an industry estimate puts 1–2% of that spend as inaccurate or invalid. Aurgus Intelligence scores how well your operation controls that exposure across five dimensions, scores you on the Off-Invoice Control rubric, and models your annual exposure range. It runs on the same principle as the platform: the number that matters is not what’s the accrual — it is whether you can answer the second question, “show me how it was calculated.”

The five dimensions

• 1Calculation Integrity. Where and how accruals are actually computed — deterministic engine, ERP module, or spreadsheets.
• 2Estimation Discipline. How tiered and volume rebates are accrued before thresholds are reached — the ASC 606 variable-consideration test.
• 3Audit Defensibility. How long it takes to trace a specific accrual back to its source transactions.
• 4Number Coherence. Whether Sales, Finance, and the ERP read one governed number — or three that get reconciled by hand.
• 5Close Efficiency. How much of your monthly and quarterly close rebate reconciliation consumes.

Short on time? The Defensibility Check is a 2-minute version focused on one dimension — traceability.