Here at the Winery, we use PINATA Software to power Demo & Tasting Activity nationwide. Since 2021, we’ve used PINATA to plan, oversee, and analyze D&T activity in real-time, alongside our wholesalers and local staffing partners.

FROM PINATA

“It’s our great pleasure to power Gallo field marketing and trade promotions initiatives. I’m here to help you simplify your work, analyze your data, and generally make the most of the PINATA platform. Never hesitate to reach out with questions!”

— Emily Lever
Gallo Account Manager, PINATA

D&T Policies

The Winery appreciates your continued participation following the implementation of PINATA which standardizes our D&T operations and streamlines our process from scheduling through invoicing. These improvements will ultimately result in more clarity, quicker turnaround, improved compliance, and a streamlined process for all parties. In addition, we’ll have a clearer line of site into what’s working, where our trade-development dollars are being spent, and how to best replicate success.

“No Data, No Dollar” is a guiding principle across the Winery. Thank you for your participation in achieving this goal for D&T!

General Process Notes:

Budgets are deployed by Gallo, which connect directly to the booking process on PINATA:

• Activities are requested, booked, recapped, and invoiced on PINATA. This step can be initiated by any party involved in the process, including Gallo, distributors, or agencies. These activities are associated with either Brand-Owned budgets or Anaplan Budgets

• If a party tries to request/book a Demo and are rejected they receive an error message 

• Invoices are submitted prior to the 10th & 25th of each month

If you don’t see a budget you’re looking for in the Budget Depletion Tracker - email @askcommerce.

Anaplan Budget Submission and Approval:

• The Investment Management Team submits and approves the budget using the Anaplan system. This budget information is then fed to PINATA (updated every 15 minutes)

• Anaplan Budget Criteria for PINATA:

  • Specific criteria must be met for budgets to be used in PINATA. These include:

    • BUDGET NAME

    • AMOUNT: Estimated gig labor+expenses draw from this upon creation. 

      • Typically $300 +/- but dynamically varies by market

    • BRAND ID (e.g. BCH): Products on the gig

    • TACTIC: Activity (e.g. On- or Off-Premise)

    • CHANNEL: Program on PINATA (Market or Key Account)

    • BUDGET START: Gig date must be >= this date

    • BUDGET END: Gig date must be < this date

• PINATA ingests Anaplan budget updates approx every ~15 minutes and exports budget depletion data nightly. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Budgets were built according to Gallo specs that they would be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. This means any gig that matches the criteria of a budget depletes it. If you have 2+ budgets with the same or overlapping criteria, the gig will attempt to deplete all equally. This is especially problematic if one budget is now $0 (since you cannot deplete 0).

Brand-Owned Programs (Not Part of Anaplan/Treasurer):

This step involves brand-owned programs, which are managed outside the responsibility of the Anaplan/Treasurer. The Investment Management Team handles the budget for these programs.

• These are not connected to Anaplan so there are no restrictions on PINATA.

• PINATA Treasurer is only eligible for Anaplan-budgeted activity, therefore, these programs cannot use the payment service. 

• Your partners may still invoice you on PINATA, but you must pay offline via Ariba (or similar).
  

Gallo Approves Invoices from Vendors:

• Once activities are completed and invoiced, the invoice is sent to Gallo for approval. Gallo reviews and either approves or rejects the invoice.

  • If Approved (and Anaplan/Treasurer eligible) - it will be processed by PINATA Treasurer on the 10th + 25th and submitted to Gallo The status will say Queued for Treasurer.

  • If Approved (but not Anaplan/Treasurer eligible) - the status will just say Approved and you can pay via Ariba and then Mark as Paid on PINATA. If you believe it SHOULD BE Treasurer eligible and still only see Approved, please check the Summary by Invoice tracker to confirm all line items have budgets. If you’re still having trouble, contact support@gopinata.com

PINATA Treasurer Consolidates Invoices:

• If approved by Gallo and is eligible for PO via SAP integration, the PINATA Treasurer consolidates all agency invoices into a single invoice for processing.

Gallo Processes Payment:

• After the invoice is consolidated or processed through the QN, Gallo completes the payment to settle the invoice.

Alternate Payment Processes:

• In cases where the vendor has not accepted PINATA Treasurer Payment terms, the consolidated invoice goes through a separate process known as the QN process. Vendor must accept the term and notify PINATA to be requeued 

• If the invoice is NOT budgeted via Anaplan, it is not eligible for Treasurer or QN.

Gallo has taken several steps to standardize invoicing and payment for D&T activity. Invoices for D&T activity must be submitted via PINATA twice a month, where they will be approved and processed. Here’s how the process works:

1. Wholesalers and agencies will send invoices on PINATA for completed, compliant activity

2. These invoices will go to relevant Forward Deploy Managers for approval on PINATA

3. Following approval by Gallo, invoices are automatically batched and consolidated into a single invoice on the business day nearest to the 10th and 25th of each month. Once payment is processed, those funds are processed and distributed to each of the agencies within 3-5 business days. PINATA does not have an estimated time in which Gallo processes their payment. Please reach out to your Gallo contact to check on the status of payment processing.

Gallo has also launched a landing page for agency and wholesaler partners, with lots of helpful information!

Going forward, any partner looking to be paid for sampling activity by the Winery will need to authorize PINATA as their collections agent by following this link and completing a simple form with their payment preferences.

For partners who need to create invoices on PINATA, their invoicing tool is simple and convenient.
Learn how to make an invoice here and feel free to share this link with appropriate stakeholders.

Technical Support

PINATA is a technology platform built specifically for field marketing and trade promotions. With powerful, easy-to-use software and helpful service, we make offline campaigns easier to execute, more efficient, and more measurable by bringing all your work into one centralized command center. Our mission is to help you improve ROI in the field while simplifying your day-to-day work.

• New User Setup

  Learn how to invite new users by clicking here.

  If you have not been invited yet, contact your manager for an invite or reach out to support@gopinata.com.

• Existing User Login

  Go to dashboard.gopinata.com to access your company’s dashboard.

  Bookmark this page for easy access on any device! Click here to learn how.

• Creation

  Learn how to create a task by clicking here. If you would like to create tasks in bulk click here to learn how.

• Editing

  Learn how to edit a task by clicking here. If you would like to edit tasks in bulk click here to learn how.

• Cancellation

  If you need to cancel/trash a task, click here to learn how. If you would like to cancel tasks in bulk click here to learn how.

• Applying Filters

  To isolate specific tasks in your schedule, you can apply filters. Click here to learn how.

• Downloading the Schedule

  You can download a CSV of scheduled tasks. Click here to learn how.

• View a Completed Task Report

  Individual Task Reports are located in the Finished section of the status bar. Click here to learn more about viewing completed task reports.

• View an Aggregated Report

  Once a gig has been verified by the staffing party, it will populate within Reports. Click here to learn more about the Reports tab offerings. Click here to learn more about how to filter + download aggregated reporting data.

Sometimes you’ll find that something you need to book a demo or sampling event is missing from the PINATA platform. Sometimes, this is intentional on the part of your colleagues who have configured the system. For example, only products that are approved for D&T activity are selectable. Other times, this is an oversight, or the system is not fully up to date. Use the buttons below to request new items. Please note: email your Gallo contact for missing budgets.

Is a user missing?
Use PINATA to invite users. See instructions to above.

Is a product missing?
This is likely intentional. The products on PINATA reflect the Winery’s D&T priorities, and there should not be any D&T activity for products or brands that are unavailable on PINATA.

When in doubt, reach out! The PINATA Support Team (support@gopinata.com) is here to answer any questions or provide a refresher on PINATA’s software when needed.

You can also visit the PINATA Help Center for more common FAQs + how-to’s.