Trade promotion planning
Plan your promotions with less spreadsheet admin.
Apex is trade promotion planning software for FMCG businesses. Keep promotions, forecasts and trade terms together, so a growing range doesn’t mean another set of workbooks to maintain.
Try the demoA working sample plan. No account needed.
Sales
- Adjust promotions, prices and volumes in one plan, with less spreadsheet admin.
- Start forecasts with price modelling, then check the plan for competing promotions.
Finance
- Review trade spend and gross profit across the period as sales updates its plan.
- Define trade terms, control who can edit costs and formulas, and see a record of every change.
Supply chain
- Use product-level forecasts to plan what to order and when.
- Review changes with sales to prepare stock for promotions and new products.
Start with what
a promotion will sell.
Apex estimates volume from your own sales history and shows how far to trust each estimate. Then check for competing promotions, change the plan, and review every change that was made.
Bring the decisions together in your plan.
Your edits are already here. Compare the weeks that matter, review their volume and gross profit, or adjust several promotions together.
Edits stay in this page until you reset the plan or reload. They do not change a live account.
As your plan grows, so does the detail.
A rebate change can mean updating calculations across dozens of workbooks. Apex keeps shared trade terms in one place, so maintaining the plan doesn’t mean maintaining every copy.
A workbook shouldn’t have to be your database.
An illustrative planning example, not an Excel limit or a performance benchmark.
The detail behind a growing plan
- 156weeks
- 20banners
- 200products
- 20trade terms
12,480,000 values in this illustrative plan, rounded above.
Change a shared term in one place, then refresh reports to review its effect across the plan.
Plan promotions while keeping control of costs and terms.
Give sales the freedom to update its plan, with clear limits on who can change the assumptions behind it.
Trade terms that fit your business
Configure trade terms and formulas for your organisation and banners, with Solstice’s help during setup.
Control who can change costs and formulas
Let sales adjust promotions while restricting changes to costs, formulas and other planning assumptions.
See who changed what
Apex records every change with the person and the time, and takes you to the cell. No monthly copies of the plan to keep.
Get answers quickly
Apex has its own suite of reports to help you get answers quickly, and can create custom connections to your external reporting tools.
Excel workbooks and Apex, side by side.
Twelve everyday planning tasks, done in workbooks and in Apex.
| Task |  Excel workbooks1 of 12, plus 10 with workarounds |
 Apex12 of 12 |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | ||
| Keep every banner, product and period in one plan | No.A workbook per banner | Yes.One plan |
| See every banner on one calendar | With workarounds.Pivot tables in other files | Yes.Live, with no refresh |
| Plan a promotion on one screen | With workarounds.Several sheets | Yes.Price, volume and terms together |
| Compare the plan with actual sales | With workarounds.Separate files | Yes.One click apart |
| Control | ||
| Change a trade term once | With workarounds.Copied into each file | Yes.With a per-banner override |
| Fix the model once for every banner | With workarounds.Each file by hand | Yes.In one release |
| Lock costs, terms and formulas | With workarounds.Sheet protection | Yes.A lock for each term |
| Limit access by role and banner | With workarounds.Whole-file access | Yes.Set when you invite someone |
| See who changed what | With workarounds.File history, not cell by cell | Yes.Who, when and which cell |
| Forecasts and reporting | ||
| Estimate volume from your own sales | With workarounds.Built by hand | Yes.With a confidence score |
| Check for clashes while you plan | With workarounds.A separate report | Yes.Ranked by severity |
| Connect to your reporting tools | Yes.Pivot tables and Power Query | Yes.Custom connections |
The Excel column describes a typical set of planning workbooks, with one file for each banner.
Ask us how this fits your planTry Apex with a plan you recognise.
Start with a slice of your business, perhaps one or two banners and around 20 products. Solstice imports your existing data and helps set up the plan.
Agree the scope
Choose the products, banners and data to bring across.
Aim for a plan within 30 days
From agreed scope and usable data to a guided introduction.
Explore for two weeks, free
Your 14-day trial starts when the plan and access are ready, with support from Solstice.
Subscriptions reflect your trade spend and agreed requirements. Tell us about your plan so we can discuss the fit and pricing.
sales@solsticedata.co.nz
SOLSTICEWorking across New Zealand and Australia.
Built on 20 years in the FMCG industry.
Solstice is a New Zealand company with 20 years of experience in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, working with brands and retailers across New Zealand and Australia.
That experience informs how we build Apex, bringing promotion planning, trade terms and financial results into a workspace shaped around the way your business works.
Get in touch with Solstice