Dealer trade scheme
An incentive a brand pays a dealer for buying, selling, or promoting its products — volume rebates (QPS/QDS), price protection, or free goods — usually settled after the sale as a credit note or goods, not as a discount on the invoice.
A dealer trade scheme is how consumer-electronics brands reward their dealers beyond the invoice price. Rather than a lower bill, the brand pays incentives after the fact — for hitting a purchase or sell-out target, for holding stock through a price cut, or for pushing a model — settled as credit notes or free goods weeks or months later.
For a multi-brand dealer this is where a large share of real margin lives, and where it leaks: every brand runs a different scheme circular in a different format, and the credit notes arrive scattered across portals and monthly statements. Reconciling them means matching what each circular promised against what the brand actually paid.
Trade schemes reach a dealer three ways — money in-bill (a discount on the invoice), backend money (QPS/QDS credit notes), and goods (free units or gifts). Each reconciles differently, which is why a single promised-vs-received tracker, or a tool like MarginOps, is needed to keep the math straight across brands.