Guide
What a wine depletion report is, and how to build one
Depletions are the numbers suppliers plan production, allocation, and incentives on. Here is what goes in a depletion report, how distributors assemble one from their sales system, and the mistakes that quietly make them wrong.
What a depletion report is
A depletion report tells a supplier what a distributor sold out to accounts during a period. The name comes from the supplier's point of view: every case a distributor sells to a restaurant or store “depletes” the inventory the supplier shipped in.
That makes it different from a shipment report. Shipments, sometimes called sell-in, are what the supplier sent to the distributor. Depletions, or sell-through, are what actually moved to the trade. The gap between the two is the distributor's inventory, and watching that gap is how a supplier knows whether a wine is selling or just sitting in a warehouse.
In the three-tier system the distributor is the only party that can see this number, which is why suppliers ask for it, contracts require it, and a whole layer of spreadsheets exists to produce it.
Who uses it, and for what
Suppliers use depletions to decide how much to produce and bottle, how to allocate a scarce wine across markets, which distributors and reps earn incentives, where a market visit is worth the flight, and when to expect the next reorder. A winery that only sees shipments finds out a wine is not selling when the distributor stops reordering, which is months too late.
Distributors produce them because supplier agreements require it, because billbacks and incentive programs are paid on them, and because a supplier who trusts your numbers is easier to negotiate with. A distributor with clean, on-time depletions is a distributor that keeps its allocations.
What goes in one
Formats vary by supplier, but the useful fields are consistent. One row per account, product, and period, with these columns:
| Field | What it holds | Why the supplier wants it |
|---|---|---|
| Period | The month or week the sales were invoiced | Suppliers compare periods to see velocity and seasonality |
| Distributor and market | Your company and the state or territory | Multi-state suppliers roll markets up into a national view |
| Account | Account name, city, and on-premise or off-premise | Placements and channel mix drive incentives and production planning |
| Product and vintage | Wine, bottle size, pack size, and vintage, ideally with the supplier's item code | Vintage-level velocity tells a winery when to release the next vintage |
| Quantity | Bottles sold, and the 9L case equivalent | Case equivalents make a 6-pack and a 12-pack comparable |
| Rep or territory | Who sold it | Suppliers fund incentives and plan market visits by rep |
| Inventory on hand | Bottles in your warehouse at period end, plus what is on order | Depletions without inventory cannot answer the only question that matters: when to reorder |
The last row is the one most reports leave out. Depletions tell a supplier what sold; inventory on hand tells them how long until you run out. Together they answer the reorder question. Apart, they start an email thread.
How distributors build one today
Most distributors assemble depletion reports by hand from a sales export. The steps are the same whether the system is QuickBooks, a route accounting package, or a spreadsheet of invoices:
- Export invoiced lines for the period. Use delivered or invoiced orders, not orders written; an order that was placed but not delivered is not a depletion yet.
- Remove what is not a sale. Samples, breakage, donations, and internal use come out. Returns and credit memos reduce the period they were credited in.
- Filter to the supplier's wines and map your item codes to theirs. This is where a wine with three live vintages under one SKU code falls apart, so keep vintage as its own column.
- Convert quantities to bottles and 9-liter case equivalents. A 6-pack of magnums and a 12-pack of 750s are both one 9L case; a 6-pack of 750s is half a case.
- Add inventory on hand at period end for each product, and anything on order from the supplier that has not landed.
- Format it the way that supplier wants and send it. Then do it again for the next supplier, in their format.
For a distributor with forty suppliers this is a recurring day or two of work every month, which is why reports slip to quarterly and why suppliers get numbers weeks after the fact.
The mistakes that make depletion reports wrong
- Counting orders instead of deliveries. Backordered or cancelled lines inflate the month they were written and vanish from the month they should have landed.
- Mixing pack sizes. Reporting a 6-pack as one case doubles that SKU's velocity. Always carry bottles and convert to 9L cases explicitly.
- Collapsing vintages. If the 2022 and 2023 share a SKU code, the supplier cannot see the 2022 selling through, and neither can your reps.
- Leaving samples in. Sample pulls look like sales in a raw export. Track them separately; suppliers often want to see them, but not counted as depletions.
- Ignoring credits. A return credited in March should reduce March, not be forgotten because the original sale was in January.
- Sending it late. A perfect report that arrives six weeks after period end cannot change a reorder or a production run that already happened.
The alternative: depletions as a live view
If the distributor's sales, delivery, and inventory already live in one system, a depletion report stops being something someone assembles. It is a filter on the same records: delivered lines, by account, by product and vintage, by period, with samples and credits already handled, and on-hand inventory beside it.
That is how PYLR does it. Suppliers connect to a portal and see depletions and warehouse inventory as business happens, and a supplier with wholesalers on other systems can combine their files into the same national view. The distributor does nothing extra. See real-time wine depletion reporting for how the supplier side works, and wine distribution software for the distributor side.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between depletions and shipments?
Shipments (sell-in) are what the supplier ships to the distributor. Depletions (sell-through) are what the distributor then sells out to bars, restaurants, and stores. A supplier can have strong shipments and weak depletions at the same time, which is exactly the situation depletion reports exist to catch.
How often should a distributor send depletion reports?
Monthly is the most common cadence, quarterly is still widespread, and some supplier contracts require it. Suppliers increasingly ask for weekly or live data because monthly reports arrive too late to change a reorder or a production run.
What is a 9-liter case equivalent?
The industry's standard unit for comparing volume across bottle sizes. Twelve 750ml bottles make one 9-liter case. Six 1.5L magnums also equal one 9L case, and twenty-four 375ml halves equal one. Converting everything to 9L cases lets a supplier compare a 6-pack SKU with a 12-pack SKU on the same line.
Do samples count as depletions?
Usually not. Samples are pulled from inventory but not sold to an account, so most suppliers want them reported separately or excluded. The same goes for breakage, donations, and internal use. Returns and credit memos should reduce depletions for the period they are credited in.
What format do suppliers want?
Most accept a spreadsheet with one row per account, product, and period. Larger suppliers may require their own template, a portal upload, or a feed into an industry data service. Whatever the format, the fields that matter are consistent: period, account, product and vintage, quantity in bottles and 9L cases, and inventory on hand at period end.
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