Promo Calendar Upload Guide | Confido Help Center

Overview

The Promotion Calendar standard template is what you'll use to bulk upload trade events into Confido via excel / csv file.

LINK TO CONFIDO STANDARD PROMO TEMPLATE: [CONFIDO] Standard Promo Calendar Template

📎 Template link: Use the "Promotion Calendar" tab in the standard template. Rows 5–8 contain pre-built examples you can reference. Delete or overwrite them before uploading.

Each row represents one promotion line — a single product with a single discount type for a specific retailer or distributor. Multiple rows can belong to the same event if they share a planning group and the same start/end dates. Confido automatically groups these together (see Column B of the template).

Before You Upload: Check Your Promo Type Settings

Confido will reject any promo type in Column H of the excel template that hasn't been enabled in your Trade Calendar Settings. Complete this check before filling out the template.

Go to app.confidotech.com/settings/trade-calendar
Under "Types of Trade that can be Created," confirm every promo type you plan to upload is selected.
To add a missing type, click the dropdown on the far right and select it.

Trade Calendar Settings — "Types of Trade that can be Created" and the Add dropdown (top right).

⚠️ Multi-subsidiary brands: You'll need to enable promo types in each subsidiary's settings separately.

Note on cross-level usage: By default, promo types starting with "Retailer" can only be used for planning group promos, and types starting with "Distributor" can only be used for distributor/ship-to promos. Toggle "Allow Cross Level Reason Usage" (shown in the screenshot above) if you need to use them interchangeably.

Template Column-by-Column Reference

The table below covers every column in the Promotion Calendar tab in the excel standard template. Status indicators:

✓ Required — must be filled for the upload to succeed
◐ Conditional — required depending on promo type (retailer vs. distributor)
⚙ Auto — auto-generated by Confido; leave blank on initial upload
○ Optional — informational; does not affect upload success

Column in Template	Field Name	Status	Notes
B	Multiple Promotions in an Event	⚙ Auto	Grouping flag used by Confido to link related promo rows. Set to TRUE for rows that share the same planning group, start date, and end date — Confido combines them into a single event. 💡 All rows with matching planning group + start/end date will auto-group even without TRUE.
C	Event ID	⚙ Auto	Auto-generated by Confido after upload. In the template, this is formula driven to populate a string based on some of the other columns.
D	Event Description	○ Optional	A short label for the event (e.g., "Publix Spring Event", "UNFI May OI"). Helpful for identifying events in the trade calendar but not required.
E	Planning Group	◐ Conditional	The retailer planning group for this promo (e.g., "Publix", "Raley's"). Required for all retailer-level promos. Leave blank if this is a distributor/OI promo — use Column F instead. 💡 Only one of Column E or Column F should be filled per row — not both.
F	Distributor	◐ Conditional	The distributor for this promo (e.g., "UNFI", "KeHE"). Required for distributor-level promos and OIs. Leave blank if this is a retailer-level promo — use Column E instead. 💡 Only one of Column E or Column F should be filled per row — not both.
G	Product Family	✓ Required	The product or product family this promo applies to (e.g., "Cups", "Multipack Cups", "Protein Bars"). Must match exactly what is set up in Confido. 💡 Spelling and capitalization must match the product name in Confido exactly.
H	Promo Type	✓ Required	The Confido reason type for this promo (e.g., "Retailer - Ads", "Retailer - Scans, EDLP", "Distributor - Off-Invoice Discount"). Must be enabled in Trade Calendar Settings before upload. 💡 Go to app.confidotech.com/settings/trade-calendar to verify your promo types are enabled.
I	Event Start Date	✓ Required	The first date of the promotional period. Format as MM/DD/YY. Double-check the year — entering the wrong year is a common error.
J	Event End Date	✓ Required	The last date of the promotional period. Cells turn red if the end date is before the start date — fix before uploading.
K	Creator	✓ Required	The person responsible for this event — typically a sales rep or trade planner. For tracking only; does not affect promo processing.
L	Discount per Unit	◐ Conditional	A fixed dollar amount off per unit (e.g., $0.60). Only fill one of Columns L, M, or N per row — leave the others blank. 💡 If a promo has both a flat fee and a per-unit discount, put each on its own row. Confido groups them via Column B logic.
M	% per Unit	◐ Conditional	A percentage discount per unit (e.g., 0.25 = 25%). Only fill one of Columns L, M, or N per row.
N	Flat Fee	◐ Conditional	A total flat dollar amount for the event (e.g., $1,500 for a co-op ad buy). Only fill one of Columns L, M, or N per row.
O	Promo Lift %	○ Optional	Expected increase in sales volume during the promotion, as a decimal (e.g., 0.60 = 60% lift). Used for demand forecasting.
P	Promo Price on Shelf	○ Optional	Expected retail price during the promotion (e.g., $9.99). Informational only.
Q	Redemption Rate	○ Optional	For coupon-based promos only — expected percentage of coupons redeemed (e.g., 0.30 = 30%). Leave blank for non-coupon promos.

⚠️ A common upload error is trying to put both a flat fee and a per-unit discount on the same row. Split them into separate rows with the same planning group and dates — Confido will group them automatically.

Multi-Row Events: How Grouping Works

A single trade event often has multiple components — for example, a Publix spring promotion might include both a flat fee and a per-unit scan discount. In Confido, each component gets its own row, but they display as a single event in the trade calendar.

Confido groups rows together when they share all three of:

The same Planning Group (Column E)
The same Event Start Date (Column I)
The same Event End Date (Column J)

✅ Example: The Publix Spring Event in the template has a flat fee ($1,500) on one row and a per-unit scan ($0.60) on another. Both rows have "Publix" in Column E and the same dates — so they group into one event in Confido. The greyed-out cells in the other discount columns in the template are intentional.

Uploading to Confido

Delete any example rows in the template (rows 5–8) and rows you don't intend to upload.
Save the file with your updates
In Confido, navigate to Trade → Trade Calendar and click Import CSV (top right).
Map your CSV columns to the Confido fields as prompted and confirm the upload. Screen recording of what the flow looks like below.

Updating Existing Events (Reloads)

If you need to bulk-update events already in Confido — for example, to add projected lifts to all existing promos — use the reload flow rather than re-entering everything from scratch.

In Confido, go to Trade → Trade Calendar and click Download CSV in the list view (bottom right of the screen).
The downloaded CSV will contain all existing events including their Promo Upload IDs.
Add or update only the fields you want to change (e.g., fill in Promo Lift % for all rows).
Re-upload the CSV using the Import CSV function. Confido matches each row to the existing event using the Promo Upload ID.

⚠️ The Promo Upload ID is required for reloads. Without it, Confido cannot match the row to an existing event and may create duplicates.

Common Upload Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Promo type in Column H of the template doesn't match Confido settings	Check settings/trade-calendar and enable the missing type before uploading
Both Column E and Column F in the template are filled on the same row	Use only Column E for retailer promos or Column F for distributor/OI promos — not both
Multiple discount types on the same row in the template	Split into separate rows with the same dates and planning group; Confido groups them automatically
Wrong year in start or end date in the template	Double-check all date fields — Column J turns red if end date is before start date
Product in Column G in the template doesn't match Confido exactly	Copy the product name exactly from your Confido product list
Promo Upload ID not matched / left blank on a reload	Download the current trade calendar from Confido to get the Promo Upload ID