Meeting Title: Brainforge x LMNT: Wholesale Finance GSheet Confirmation Date: 2026-03-13 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran, Amber Lin, Bess Ross
WEBVTT
1 00:00:07.410 ⇒ 00:00:08.440 Amber Lin: Hello!
2 00:00:08.890 ⇒ 00:00:10.050 Uttam Kumaran: Hello!
3 00:00:17.970 ⇒ 00:00:19.340 Uttam Kumaran: How’s the day going?
4 00:00:19.780 ⇒ 00:00:27.420 Amber Lin: Pretty good, pretty intense. We’re working on different clients, hopping around. Hi, Beth!
5 00:00:28.110 ⇒ 00:00:30.889 Bess Ross: Oh, sorry, I just hit you guys up on…
6 00:00:30.890 ⇒ 00:00:34.489 Uttam Kumaran: Sorry, that was, I was just running, like, a minute late, and then I think Zoom…
7 00:00:34.820 ⇒ 00:00:39.190 Uttam Kumaran: Puts people in a lobby for, like, 30 more seconds, so…
8 00:00:39.190 ⇒ 00:00:40.349 Bess Ross: No worries.
9 00:00:41.960 ⇒ 00:00:42.960 Bess Ross: How are you guys?
10 00:00:43.170 ⇒ 00:00:44.730 Uttam Kumaran: Good! How are you?
11 00:00:45.020 ⇒ 00:00:45.730 Bess Ross: Good.
12 00:00:46.500 ⇒ 00:00:47.250 Uttam Kumaran: Rockin’.
13 00:00:47.460 ⇒ 00:00:48.490 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a good week.
14 00:00:49.390 ⇒ 00:00:51.039 Bess Ross: Yeah, it’s gonna be fake.
15 00:00:52.170 ⇒ 00:01:00.160 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, so yeah, I think the impetus for this was just to kind of walk through discounts and refunds, and also just, like, walk through
16 00:01:00.470 ⇒ 00:01:02.559 Uttam Kumaran: That sheet, and…
17 00:01:02.860 ⇒ 00:01:03.549 Bess Ross: I got a couple months.
18 00:01:03.550 ⇒ 00:01:07.969 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, is that, like, is that usable now for…
19 00:01:08.140 ⇒ 00:01:11.769 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if you’re still closed in Feb, or for next month, and…
20 00:01:11.990 ⇒ 00:01:18.189 Uttam Kumaran: what else, like, I can sort of… we can add to the list of, like, ways to modify or make it better?
21 00:01:18.190 ⇒ 00:01:18.590 Bess Ross: Yeah.
22 00:01:19.290 ⇒ 00:01:27.510 Bess Ross: Why don’t I… we’re still closing February, but this piece is closed, and closed, so I can pull up February.
23 00:01:27.730 ⇒ 00:01:35.659 Bess Ross: And we can just take a look and see how it compares to your new file, because I’ve not had a chance to take a look at that.
24 00:01:36.550 ⇒ 00:01:39.780 Bess Ross: Sales reconciliations…
25 00:01:48.700 ⇒ 00:01:56.869 Bess Ross: Alright, so I’ll share my screen. Or what do you think the best way to do this would be? I guess I can pull up both of them.
26 00:01:57.440 ⇒ 00:02:05.199 Amber Lin: Yeah, we can do it side by side, or if you can share it with me, I can also, like, do the calculations as you speak.
27 00:02:05.300 ⇒ 00:02:09.080 Bess Ross: Sure. I’ll send it to both of you guys.
28 00:02:12.510 ⇒ 00:02:15.590 Bess Ross: Udom, am I saying your name right? How do you say your name?
29 00:02:15.590 ⇒ 00:02:17.549 Uttam Kumaran: You can say Utsam, that’s fine.
30 00:02:17.550 ⇒ 00:02:18.860 Bess Ross: What, how do you say it?
31 00:02:18.860 ⇒ 00:02:22.980 Uttam Kumaran: the, like, people from India, like, it’s pronounced Uptam.
32 00:02:23.200 ⇒ 00:02:34.360 Uttam Kumaran: But in the States, like, two T’s… in Tamil, which is, like, what my family speaks, two Ts translates, like, in pronunciation to TH.
33 00:02:34.920 ⇒ 00:02:46.269 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, I grew up here, I grew up in, like, California. So, like, I… usually I say Utam, or… but for Shivani, because she’s… she’s… she’s Indian, knows, like, the Indian pronunciation, either way is fine.
34 00:02:46.270 ⇒ 00:02:49.620 Bess Ross: Okay, I just… I had… I had… I wasn’t sure, so I…
35 00:02:49.620 ⇒ 00:02:56.929 Uttam Kumaran: No, I appreciate you asking. I feel like… see, I just, like, you know, you go through life with the substitute teachers and whatever, it’s not… it’s not.
36 00:02:56.930 ⇒ 00:03:01.770 Bess Ross: Not as much as my identity anymore, so… but I appreciate that.
37 00:03:02.010 ⇒ 00:03:07.289 Bess Ross: Yeah, and Amber, what’s your email address? It’s not coming up for me. Is it just at Brainforge?
38 00:03:07.460 ⇒ 00:03:11.040 Amber Lin: Yeah, amberseru.lynn, I can send it in the chat.
39 00:03:11.040 ⇒ 00:03:11.880 Bess Ross: Okay.
40 00:03:16.770 ⇒ 00:03:17.610 Amber Lin: Cool.
41 00:03:18.420 ⇒ 00:03:19.330 Amber Lin: Alright.
42 00:03:19.330 ⇒ 00:03:21.090 Bess Ross: Let’s see…
43 00:03:32.040 ⇒ 00:03:38.910 Bess Ross: Okay, I just sent that over to you guys, and do you mind popping in the chat the link to your file?
44 00:03:39.090 ⇒ 00:03:40.560 Amber Lin: Yes, let me do that.
45 00:03:41.470 ⇒ 00:03:45.150 Bess Ross: I plan on pulling it up and did not have time to do that.
46 00:03:47.370 ⇒ 00:03:49.299 Amber Lin: It’s in the chat now.
47 00:03:49.510 ⇒ 00:03:50.330 Bess Ross: Cool.
48 00:03:52.600 ⇒ 00:03:53.920 Bess Ross: Alright…
49 00:03:59.180 ⇒ 00:04:04.920 Bess Ross: So, we can… I’ll share my screen.
50 00:04:08.660 ⇒ 00:04:09.640 Bess Ross: Okay.
51 00:04:10.030 ⇒ 00:04:15.569 Bess Ross: So here’s your file. So you’ve added discounts, added returns.
52 00:04:15.790 ⇒ 00:04:18.579 Bess Ross: Great. Alright.
53 00:04:19.110 ⇒ 00:04:22.599 Bess Ross: So, and here is my file…
54 00:04:26.960 ⇒ 00:04:31.059 Bess Ross: They put these little things in the… I don’t even know if y’all can see that, there we go.
55 00:04:31.270 ⇒ 00:04:33.049 Bess Ross: No worse places. Okay.
56 00:04:36.570 ⇒ 00:04:47.410 Bess Ross: So, we’ve got… this is… so you’ve got gross sales, less discounts to get to… this number… Yeah.
57 00:04:47.410 ⇒ 00:04:52.219 Amber Lin: Try to copy the same columns you have, so the reconciliation could be easier.
58 00:04:52.560 ⇒ 00:04:54.000 Bess Ross: Perfect.
59 00:04:54.240 ⇒ 00:04:57.440 Bess Ross: Gross sales, less discounts. Alright, so… Yes.
60 00:04:57.490 ⇒ 00:05:06.439 Amber Lin: You can actually, on my file, you can scroll to the bottom. I made a summary table, so you don’t have to scroll as much. Okay.
61 00:05:06.660 ⇒ 00:05:15.179 Amber Lin: So I have it right there. Noted, I don’t have, like, the… re-added back, like, returns, so…
62 00:05:15.180 ⇒ 00:05:16.260 Bess Ross: that this month.
63 00:05:16.260 ⇒ 00:05:17.039 Amber Lin: Okay, cool.
64 00:05:17.040 ⇒ 00:05:24.570 Bess Ross: I’m planning to not do that anymore. The dollars are so small now. At one point, they were larger, so it made sense.
65 00:05:24.980 ⇒ 00:05:33.180 Bess Ross: But we’re just going to keep them in a general returns account, so that will simplify this. Okay.
66 00:05:34.620 ⇒ 00:05:37.960 Bess Ross: So, for my…
67 00:05:39.390 ⇒ 00:05:47.410 Bess Ross: D2C Sparkling… there was a small difference here, and I had traced it out, dang it, I should’ve… did I send it to you guys?
68 00:05:50.590 ⇒ 00:05:51.070 Amber Lin: Hmm.
69 00:05:52.710 ⇒ 00:05:57.800 Bess Ross: But it is very small, but there is a small difference there, and I’m not sure why.
70 00:05:57.800 ⇒ 00:06:06.629 Amber Lin: Let’s see, I have… Like, 681 at the last 3 digits, and I think you have, like.
71 00:06:06.910 ⇒ 00:06:11.189 Amber Lin: So, we have probably $500 more?
72 00:06:11.620 ⇒ 00:06:12.600 Bess Ross: Yeah, yeah.
73 00:06:12.860 ⇒ 00:06:18.639 Bess Ross: so small, but… And it may be…
74 00:06:20.700 ⇒ 00:06:24.249 Bess Ross: So I add back… does that include your returns, or no?
75 00:06:24.900 ⇒ 00:06:27.869 Amber Lin: No, just, I’m just looking at gross sales.
76 00:06:28.580 ⇒ 00:06:32.359 Bess Ross: Okay, that, sorry, gross sales would be here for me.
77 00:06:32.360 ⇒ 00:06:39.809 Amber Lin: Yeah, so I think we’re… we’re closer… no, 5, 8…
78 00:06:41.580 ⇒ 00:06:46.729 Bess Ross: Honestly, this is really the only number I care about. You have to get discounts to get it.
79 00:06:48.340 ⇒ 00:06:51.030 Bess Ross: Really, we’re looking at this.
80 00:06:51.150 ⇒ 00:06:52.010 Bess Ross: Right here.
81 00:06:52.010 ⇒ 00:06:56.470 Amber Lin: I see, I see. Our discounts are…
82 00:07:00.350 ⇒ 00:07:01.310 Amber Lin: Aww.
83 00:07:02.300 ⇒ 00:07:02.780 Bess Ross: Hired.
84 00:07:02.780 ⇒ 00:07:05.310 Amber Lin: Our discounts are a lot higher than yours.
85 00:07:05.510 ⇒ 00:07:07.900 Bess Ross: Yeah, that’s what I was just about to say.
86 00:07:10.180 ⇒ 00:07:13.299 Amber Lin: How do you… then how do you apply…
87 00:07:14.040 ⇒ 00:07:26.299 Amber Lin: discounts. Is the discounts, because the discount and return numbers we have are at the order level, so we know, hey, the customer got a discount on this order.
88 00:07:27.120 ⇒ 00:07:41.190 Amber Lin: So, this is labeled discount. It’s not a true discount, so I think we talked about this before, but I’m not sure what it is, to be honest, but we don’t offer discounts, so it’s not a… it’s not a discount in a normal discount sense.
89 00:07:41.210 ⇒ 00:07:50.349 Bess Ross: But it’s coming through that Shopify report, sales by product all, that I sent you guys, as labeled as discounts. So it’s just…
90 00:07:50.350 ⇒ 00:07:58.109 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so if you look at, like, for example, what I see, like, line 120 and 121, those are, like, it’ll be 100% discount.
91 00:07:58.210 ⇒ 00:08:13.190 Uttam Kumaran: Either it’s, like, a coupon, or sometimes if it’s, like, a return, sometimes people just put it in as, like, a 100% discount, instead of, like, creating a return order. So that’s some… that’s pretty common. Like, some of these look like…
92 00:08:14.680 ⇒ 00:08:20.199 Uttam Kumaran: Again, some of the values, like 5250, 2625, 78, 75, some of these are rep…
93 00:08:20.320 ⇒ 00:08:25.300 Uttam Kumaran: repeated, like, 50… I mean, this is actually just increments of 2625.
94 00:08:25.590 ⇒ 00:08:29.929 Uttam Kumaran: some of these, so I wonder, Amber, if we could look at some of these orders and see
95 00:08:30.210 ⇒ 00:08:31.160 Uttam Kumaran: Whether it’s, like, a.
96 00:08:31.160 ⇒ 00:08:32.460 Amber Lin: How the discounts are applied.
97 00:08:32.460 ⇒ 00:08:39.940 Uttam Kumaran: You may see in the discount, like, field, people will usually put a description of, like, what it is. You know, I wonder what…
98 00:08:41.230 ⇒ 00:08:42.979 Uttam Kumaran: I wonder what it is, yeah.
99 00:08:44.410 ⇒ 00:08:50.839 Bess Ross: Yeah, because it’s not a true discount. I think it’s more like what you’re saying, in that.
100 00:08:52.480 ⇒ 00:08:55.190 Uttam Kumaran: If it’s, like, damaged product or something…
101 00:08:55.190 ⇒ 00:09:01.459 Bess Ross: And I don’t… I don’t think it’s true, it’s not… it’s not a return, because my guess is in these.
102 00:09:01.460 ⇒ 00:09:03.090 Uttam Kumaran: No, yeah, it’d be like a refund.
103 00:09:03.090 ⇒ 00:09:04.759 Bess Ross: Yeah, it’s more of just a refund.
104 00:09:04.760 ⇒ 00:09:24.550 Uttam Kumaran: a refund, but this is common, because ultimately, we have a lot of clients that, like, because it doesn’t matter for the operations team, as long as it just gets in, but, like, when we see it, then we’ll be like, well, this should be in the right column. So, I think, Amber, it’s worth going and looking at some of the orders, and seeing… you’ll see there’ll be a reason, typically.
105 00:09:24.620 ⇒ 00:09:27.770 Uttam Kumaran: Or at least you can see, like, who modified the change.
106 00:09:29.120 ⇒ 00:09:32.499 Bess Ross: But I don’t think that… that explains why we have different numbers.
107 00:09:32.500 ⇒ 00:09:35.839 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that doesn’t… I should… I don’t think that explains that, necessarily.
108 00:09:35.840 ⇒ 00:09:40.170 Bess Ross: Yeah, because you guys are using the same…
109 00:09:40.310 ⇒ 00:09:42.749 Bess Ross: Well, you guys are querying the system.
110 00:09:42.940 ⇒ 00:09:44.149 Uttam Kumaran: It should be the same, though.
111 00:09:44.150 ⇒ 00:09:55.070 Bess Ross: Should be the same, yeah. So, I’m not sure on that piece, but, if we’re looking here, if we’re looking at gross sales, our gross sales number is very close. This one’s off by…
112 00:09:55.070 ⇒ 00:09:55.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
113 00:09:55.670 ⇒ 00:09:56.350 Bess Ross: A bit.
114 00:09:56.820 ⇒ 00:09:57.370 Amber Lin: Yeah.
115 00:10:00.100 ⇒ 00:10:04.779 Bess Ross: And then… Shopify drink, but… oh, this is your file.
116 00:10:10.120 ⇒ 00:10:21.449 Bess Ross: Sorry, wholesale Sparkling… 27… So we’re off there to…
117 00:10:28.190 ⇒ 00:10:30.950 Bess Ross: I feel like we were closer last time I looked at it.
118 00:10:31.790 ⇒ 00:10:32.320 Amber Lin: Hmm.
119 00:10:46.210 ⇒ 00:10:47.879 Bess Ross: Both go sparkly.
120 00:10:54.280 ⇒ 00:10:56.329 Bess Ross: Yeah, here we go, 423.
121 00:10:58.000 ⇒ 00:10:59.689 Bess Ross: That one’s going down here.
122 00:11:01.370 ⇒ 00:11:02.610 Bess Ross: Perse, second.
123 00:11:02.900 ⇒ 00:11:08.060 Bess Ross: Getting confused on which… 423-302 is what?
124 00:11:08.500 ⇒ 00:11:10.760 Bess Ross: And how is that first one up here?
125 00:11:14.580 ⇒ 00:11:17.029 Bess Ross: Yeah, this is pulling something else.
126 00:11:23.140 ⇒ 00:11:26.179 Bess Ross: Yeah, so I think you’re mean to pull this number.
127 00:11:26.400 ⇒ 00:11:27.679 Amber Lin: Mmm, I see.
128 00:11:33.020 ⇒ 00:11:36.049 Bess Ross: Is that the same for drink mix? Is that our same…
129 00:11:37.920 ⇒ 00:11:38.780 Amber Lin: Check.
130 00:11:38.950 ⇒ 00:11:44.289 Bess Ross: Yeah, it should be… should be pulling, should be pulling G.
131 00:11:50.480 ⇒ 00:11:52.919 Bess Ross: So here you have… whoo, hold on.
132 00:11:53.310 ⇒ 00:11:56.379 Bess Ross: I think this summary down here is just pulling something funky.
133 00:11:57.010 ⇒ 00:11:59.019 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me edit this real quick.
134 00:12:17.910 ⇒ 00:12:21.089 Bess Ross: I think it’s fun to look up here. Okay, so…
135 00:12:21.760 ⇒ 00:12:27.149 Bess Ross: D2C Sparkling, so your discounts number is closer, so you actually have 800.
136 00:12:27.860 ⇒ 00:12:29.360 Bess Ross: Versus…
137 00:12:33.170 ⇒ 00:12:35.469 Bess Ross: So this is our difference, basically.
138 00:12:37.470 ⇒ 00:12:40.180 Bess Ross: And that might be our difference in…
139 00:12:43.130 ⇒ 00:12:46.219 Bess Ross: That might be our difference in the gross sales as well.
140 00:12:46.890 ⇒ 00:12:55.630 Amber Lin: Gosh, yeah, I just updated them, so… looking at… My number’s now…
141 00:13:13.000 ⇒ 00:13:18.110 Bess Ross: I’ll delete this, but… 5589…
142 00:13:40.540 ⇒ 00:13:44.669 Bess Ross: So you’ve got something pulling in here that I’m not picking up.
143 00:13:47.250 ⇒ 00:13:49.609 Bess Ross: Sorry, did you just update it?
144 00:13:49.850 ⇒ 00:13:54.589 Amber Lin: Yeah, I… Checking the numbers right now, does this look better?
145 00:13:55.840 ⇒ 00:13:59.680 Bess Ross: Yes, so then our difference is just these two line items.
146 00:14:00.860 ⇒ 00:14:03.629 Bess Ross: And those are… this is what I was talking about earlier, I think.
147 00:14:03.630 ⇒ 00:14:04.880 Amber Lin: Oh, okay.
148 00:14:04.880 ⇒ 00:14:06.310 Bess Ross: new SKUs.
149 00:14:06.560 ⇒ 00:14:06.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
150 00:14:06.900 ⇒ 00:14:08.570 Amber Lin: Gotcha, okay.
151 00:14:10.030 ⇒ 00:14:12.020 Uttam Kumaran: I think we made… we,
152 00:14:12.370 ⇒ 00:14:17.079 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like we added one to… the other day, but yeah, I think that’s… that makes sense.
153 00:14:17.400 ⇒ 00:14:19.490 Bess Ross: I think those were the new SKUs.
154 00:14:20.540 ⇒ 00:14:37.390 Amber Lin: Cool. I really think what will solve this is having this in the dashboard instead of in a spreadsheet, because right now, the rows are fixed, based on, say, when we created this, which is about 2, 3 weeks ago, of what SKUs we have, but…
155 00:14:37.780 ⇒ 00:14:42.920 Bess Ross: Yeah, I completely agree, and that’s what I was telling Udom, that,
156 00:14:43.290 ⇒ 00:14:53.390 Bess Ross: like, unless there’s some kind of completeness check, I’ll always have to run my process to make sure that we’re picking everything up, so then the spreadsheet isn’t super helpful.
157 00:14:55.550 ⇒ 00:14:58.339 Bess Ross: But it would be if it was dynamic in a…
158 00:14:58.600 ⇒ 00:15:06.570 Bess Ross: in the dashboard where I knew… where we had just, like, tested a couple months to make sure I was picking everything up correctly. And…
159 00:15:06.800 ⇒ 00:15:08.739 Bess Ross: And then I could use it, but…
160 00:15:09.220 ⇒ 00:15:19.029 Bess Ross: if I were to use it, I’d then have to go… right now, I’d have to… if I were using your file, I would then have to go full the normal way to make sure I was agreeing to
161 00:15:19.210 ⇒ 00:15:20.349 Bess Ross: the totals.
162 00:15:20.750 ⇒ 00:15:21.370 Amber Lin: Yeah.
163 00:15:22.140 ⇒ 00:15:23.360 Amber Lin: Makes sense.
164 00:15:24.450 ⇒ 00:15:26.960 Amber Lin: So, I think…
165 00:15:27.770 ⇒ 00:15:31.340 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, so to give you a sense on the dashboard side, I mean, we’re probably, like.
166 00:15:31.930 ⇒ 00:15:33.780 Uttam Kumaran: 6 weeks out.
167 00:15:34.170 ⇒ 00:15:41.040 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So I… so I still want to make sure that, like, at least we can use this process. If it’s still, like.
168 00:15:41.200 ⇒ 00:15:45.839 Uttam Kumaran: next month, or when we close month, we need to go look at new SKUs and things like that.
169 00:15:46.580 ⇒ 00:15:49.340 Bess Ross: Well, to be honest with you, like, this isn’t a huge, like.
170 00:15:49.340 ⇒ 00:15:49.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
171 00:15:49.790 ⇒ 00:15:51.749 Bess Ross: Neil, if I need to do this process first.
172 00:15:51.750 ⇒ 00:15:52.090 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
173 00:15:52.090 ⇒ 00:16:09.699 Bess Ross: for another month or two, not a big deal at all, I’ve been doing it for however long, so… Okay. No change on my end. But then, if you guys are working towards a dashboard view, I think once you get that ready, maybe we reconvene and we just look at several past months to make sure that.
174 00:16:09.700 ⇒ 00:16:10.170 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
175 00:16:10.170 ⇒ 00:16:15.979 Bess Ross: dashboard when we get into a certain month, and we up… like, that they’re tying back to what, I’m showing.
176 00:16:15.980 ⇒ 00:16:28.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so part of this is helpful is, like, for our model to just understand that we can actually get to the number, and then, yeah, I think, like, once we’re in the dashboard, we will have, like, that completeness check to look at, like, we’re bringing in all the right SKUs.
177 00:16:29.090 ⇒ 00:16:29.560 Bess Ross: Okay.
178 00:16:30.550 ⇒ 00:16:34.019 Bess Ross: how can I help? Should I send you a couple months? Like, you have December.
179 00:16:34.020 ⇒ 00:16:40.010 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, we… probably in, like, 3 weeks, I was gonna ask for the last… I mean…
180 00:16:41.060 ⇒ 00:16:51.700 Uttam Kumaran: on our side, we’re gonna go… we would love to check as many months as possible. If it’s easy to just do the last few, then, that are closed, that would be great.
181 00:16:52.350 ⇒ 00:16:55.130 Uttam Kumaran: Because we’re gonna be kind of working our way backwards to…
182 00:16:55.390 ⇒ 00:16:59.749 Uttam Kumaran: Make sure anything 2026 is working, and then we’re kind of working back, you know?
183 00:16:59.750 ⇒ 00:17:00.100 Bess Ross: Yep.
184 00:17:00.840 ⇒ 00:17:20.120 Bess Ross: Well, just let me know which months you want. I mean, they’re done, they’re out there, you know, February and… February back, so I’m happy to do whatever you guys need on that end, but I think that you guys are on the… the right track, it’s just the same… it’s this… you’re running into the same thing that I run into every month, is we… I gotta make…
185 00:17:20.119 ⇒ 00:17:28.739 Bess Ross: the labeling in Shopify as of right now, is not very clear as to what type of SKU it is, whether it’s wholesale, D2C.
186 00:17:28.940 ⇒ 00:17:29.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
187 00:17:29.380 ⇒ 00:17:36.609 Bess Ross: And so, like, even this month when these popped up, I had to reach out to tech and be like, hey, where… where do these belong? What are they?
188 00:17:36.610 ⇒ 00:17:42.290 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’s a good piece. So, like, in our situation, Amber, like, similar thing would happen, but…
189 00:17:42.470 ⇒ 00:17:44.440 Uttam Kumaran: Would you prefer, like.
190 00:17:45.070 ⇒ 00:17:56.000 Uttam Kumaran: should we… should we think of it, like, hey, these are unclassified SKUs, and, like, that’s what appears? Because that’s something we could do, and that way you can see, like, these don’t end up categorized, or…
191 00:17:56.120 ⇒ 00:18:03.930 Uttam Kumaran: We basically put it in an ad, uncategorized section, so that… it’s still… Goes into the right sum.
192 00:18:04.710 ⇒ 00:18:15.689 Amber Lin: I think that would be very helpful, because then it helps us know what we need to classify, but I’ll need to think about how we add this to a spreadsheet.
193 00:18:16.260 ⇒ 00:18:34.979 Amber Lin: I think best to give you a sense of how we do classification on the retail side is, I believe we just apply rules in the database of, hey, if this product has the name Sparkling SPK, or, say, 16 ounce or 12 ounce, we say this is Sparkling.
194 00:18:34.980 ⇒ 00:18:47.480 Amber Lin: So, maybe in the future we move towards a more automatic classification instead of always having to say, we got this one new product, where do we put it? So, to remove.
195 00:18:47.480 ⇒ 00:18:51.879 Bess Ross: Well, and I think that this is… Needs to be, like.
196 00:18:52.090 ⇒ 00:18:56.339 Bess Ross: put on whoever is creating SKUs in Shopify to…
197 00:18:56.340 ⇒ 00:18:56.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
198 00:18:56.900 ⇒ 00:18:58.930 Bess Ross: To standardize what it is, like.
199 00:18:58.930 ⇒ 00:19:04.860 Uttam Kumaran: But has anything… when you… when you flagged it, has that been a conversation, or no? Because then we can just double… we’ll just double on that.
200 00:19:06.460 ⇒ 00:19:20.369 Bess Ross: I had… no, it hasn’t been in conversation today, but it should be. And honestly, it’s because I don’t know who does it, so I don’t know who to bring it up with. I’ve mentioned it to a couple people before, but…
201 00:19:20.370 ⇒ 00:19:24.129 Uttam Kumaran: It’s kind of complicated if you don’t, like, see this, really, this process.
202 00:19:24.130 ⇒ 00:19:44.060 Bess Ross: Right, but I’m like, I’m having to go buy SKU, buy price, and that used to be really simple when all the wholesale pricing was 10, but now that we introduce sparkling stuff and, you know, different types of wholesale customers stuff, that may not always work, and so I think we need to fix it before it doesn’t work.
203 00:19:44.060 ⇒ 00:19:48.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, similarly, I think we’re gonna hit some of these process
204 00:19:48.790 ⇒ 00:20:04.440 Uttam Kumaran: improvement problems, and so one thing that we’ll do is we can… we’ll just flag that as, like, hey, this is a process. The nice thing is we see all of the raw data and the stuff that we model, and so we can isolate, like, hey, these two entered and they’re not categorized.
205 00:20:04.620 ⇒ 00:20:05.000 Bess Ross: Yeah.
206 00:20:05.240 ⇒ 00:20:08.060 Uttam Kumaran: One thing on our side we will do is consistently have
207 00:20:08.290 ⇒ 00:20:20.310 Uttam Kumaran: we’ll say issues like that come up, and then ideally, yes, there should be some type of SOP for entering new SKUs, or if that exists, there should be a step here that’s, like, put it in the proper category, you know?
208 00:20:21.270 ⇒ 00:20:25.900 Bess Ross: Yeah, there should be a stand… I mean, just like you would do in an inventory.
209 00:20:25.900 ⇒ 00:20:26.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
210 00:20:26.330 ⇒ 00:20:27.460 Bess Ross: System, like, you need.
211 00:20:27.460 ⇒ 00:20:27.910 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly.
212 00:20:27.910 ⇒ 00:20:32.549 Bess Ross: standard item ID code that we can then decipher.
213 00:20:32.550 ⇒ 00:20:33.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
214 00:20:33.370 ⇒ 00:20:43.439 Bess Ross: So, I definitely think that’s a piece of feedback. And then, the way that you were describing kind of having an uncategorized bucket, that’s exactly what I’m doing to figure out what.
215 00:20:43.440 ⇒ 00:20:43.800 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
216 00:20:43.800 ⇒ 00:20:46.150 Bess Ross: You know, on the Shopify sale.
217 00:20:46.150 ⇒ 00:20:54.499 Uttam Kumaran: So we’re not ex… because we’re not expecting anything in there, what we will do is actually, like, have a little alert that’ll be like, uncategorized is greater than zero. Yes.
218 00:20:54.500 ⇒ 00:20:58.179 Bess Ross: Exactly. When I put it in here, it’ll pop out ads.
219 00:20:58.180 ⇒ 00:21:00.840 Uttam Kumaran: Yes. Pulling on the other tab.
220 00:21:00.840 ⇒ 00:21:02.479 Bess Ross: Okay, exactly, yeah.
221 00:21:02.600 ⇒ 00:21:13.650 Bess Ross: So, just a simple completeness check will tell you, you know, at the end of every month, that should be zero, because once something pops out, it will… we then put it in the right bucket, but,
222 00:21:14.580 ⇒ 00:21:18.080 Bess Ross: Yeah, I think… I think a completeness check would solve the problem.
223 00:21:18.440 ⇒ 00:21:18.950 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
224 00:21:18.950 ⇒ 00:21:27.310 Bess Ross: And I would say, don’t even worry about… if I’m the only one using the spreadsheet, don’t worry about it. No, we actually need your, like…
225 00:21:27.450 ⇒ 00:21:45.380 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, it’s kind of two things. One, the spreadsheet we built for you, I think, is… like, if it’s helpful, it’s great, but we actually need the logic, like, that you’re doing in order to make sure that we’re complete. So it’s actually… the spreadsheet we developed is sort of just a byproduct of, like, we have this view, we can make it, and if it helps.
226 00:21:45.570 ⇒ 00:22:00.689 Uttam Kumaran: then let’s do it. Let’s make it available. But that way also, like, now that we’re also staring at the Shopify data all the time, if we can be helpful to validate things, and we want to make sure that the numbers we’re producing are exactly in line with yours, so yeah.
227 00:22:00.690 ⇒ 00:22:02.009 Bess Ross: Yeah. Okay.
228 00:22:02.180 ⇒ 00:22:15.169 Bess Ross: But yeah, so my plan will be, I probably won’t use it until it’s in the dashboard form, and I’ll just continue to do my normal process, but once that’s available, that’ll be great, and it’ll cut out a couple steps, and…
229 00:22:16.030 ⇒ 00:22:18.910 Bess Ross: Couple places I need to go grab information.
230 00:22:18.910 ⇒ 00:22:19.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
231 00:22:19.830 ⇒ 00:22:23.049 Bess Ross: There’ll be plenty other places, but that will cut out one of them.
232 00:22:23.480 ⇒ 00:22:24.770 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
233 00:22:25.320 ⇒ 00:22:25.990 Bess Ross: Cool.
234 00:22:26.300 ⇒ 00:22:28.869 Bess Ross: Hopefully this was helpful, I don’t know that…
235 00:22:29.160 ⇒ 00:22:29.800 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
236 00:22:29.800 ⇒ 00:22:30.380 Bess Ross: Okay.
237 00:22:31.110 ⇒ 00:22:34.479 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think, Amber, we’ll… let’s talk about how we want to do the uncategorized piece.
238 00:22:35.340 ⇒ 00:22:36.159 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so that’s…
239 00:22:36.160 ⇒ 00:22:36.580 Amber Lin: Awesome.
240 00:22:36.580 ⇒ 00:22:37.330 Uttam Kumaran: Again, just flag that.
241 00:22:38.750 ⇒ 00:22:44.699 Bess Ross: Okay. Well, cool, just, if you guys need additional months for testing, just let me know and I’ll shoot them to you.
242 00:22:44.950 ⇒ 00:22:45.820 Amber Lin: Okay. Cool. Okay.
243 00:22:46.330 ⇒ 00:22:48.580 Bess Ross: Cool. Alright. Thanks, guys.
244 00:22:48.580 ⇒ 00:22:48.960 Uttam Kumaran: so much.
245 00:22:48.960 ⇒ 00:22:49.390 Amber Lin: Expensive.
246 00:22:49.530 ⇒ 00:22:50.640 Bess Ross: Bye. Bye.