Client Stories

Background 

Tata Consumer Products UK Limited is a £239 million consumer goods business specialising in beverages, foods and wellness products. Its flagship brand, Tetley is one of the largest tea brands in the world. Based in Greenford, UK, TATA Consumer Products operates across modern and traditional trade channels and exports products globally. 

In 2018, TATA Consumer Products UK Limited selected UpClear as its Revenue Management partner for the UK, deploying BluePlanner to support sales planning and Trade Promotion Management.  Initial rollout began in August 2018 and was completed in early 2019, with the deployment of capabilities supporting validation and management of promotional spend in BluePlanner. 

Challenge 

In 2024, TATA Consumer Products UK sought to enhance its financial governance and reduce the manual effort involved in managing deductions. The company wanted to: 

• Automate the ingestion of invoice and deduction data. 
• Streamline the matching of deductions to promotions. 
• Ensure consistent, auditable communication back to their ERP system. 
• Improve visibility into actualised spend for more accurate trade accruals. 

Solution 

To meet these objectives, UpClear deployed  additional capabilities available in the BluePlanner platform used to reconcile and process deductions. This element of BluePlanner- called “Payments,” fully integrates with TATA’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This provides users with a centralised workspace to manage and reconcile deductions, improving the efficiency and accuracy of deduction validation and categorization of deductions by customer, product, time, spend reason, and ultimately General Ledger (GL) account. This also defines the actual cost of promotional activity for which the spending was planned. 

Key capabilities included: 

• Centralised Matching Workspace: Finance and sales teams can now review and match deductions to promotions within a single platform, simplifying what was previously a fragmented and manual process. 
• ERP Integration: BluePlanner receives invoice and deduction data directly from TATA’s ERP system and communicates matched results back, significantly reducing the need for duplicate data handling. 
• AI-Ready Infrastructure: With the matching process now structured and digitised within BluePlanner, TATA is well positioned to explore BluePlanner AI tools to further assist users in identifying potential matches faster and more accurately. 
• Validation & Controls: Built-in checks help ensure each match aligns with internal compliance standards and audit requirements. 
• Actualised Accruals: As invoices are linked to promotional spend, the system provides a clearer view of actuals, enabling more accurate forecasting and financial planning. 

Results 

The implementation delivered several measurable benefits: 

• Governance Improvement: Strengthened internal controls and improved audit alignment. 
• Error Reduction: Automation reduced manual inputs and associated risks of financial discrepancies. 
• Operational Efficiency: Finance and sales teams now collaborate more easily, resolving deductions faster with fewer back-and-forth exchanges. 
• Improved Forecasting: Accruals based on actual invoice data offer greater accuracy for financial planning and decision-making. 

Stephanie Dawber, Commercial Strategy & Planning Manager at TATA had this to say: 

“The dedicated support the UpClear team provided throughout our deduction matching project was exemplary. Their expertise and collaboration were instrumental in transforming a previously manual, error-prone, and time-consuming process into a streamlined, automated solution. Since implementation, we’ve seen marked improvements in accuracy, processing speed, and exception handling — allowing our teams to focus on higher-value activities. 

This partnership has significantly enhanced efficiency and control in our accounts receivable operations, while also improving visibility and accuracy in accruals and balance sheet management. It’s fostered a more integrated, collaborative approach across both sales and finance, and we look forward to continuing this successful relationship on future initiatives.” 

Conclusion

By activating BluePlanner’s Deduction Matching capability in the Payments module, Tata Consumer Products transformed a previously manual and time-consuming process into an integrated and efficient workflow. The result is a more accurate, compliant, and collaborative deductions process—supporting both financial discipline and strategic planning in trade promotion management.  

About UpClear

At UpClear, our mission is to empower Consumer Goods brands to maximize revenue performance and trade investment returns through intelligent, collaborative software—providing a single source of truth, streamlined automation, and actionable insights. 

BluePlanner Revenue Management software supports end-to-end processes, from Annual Operating Planning to Account Planning and Execution.