What is a depletion report?
The short answer: A depletion report is the file your distributor sends showing what they sold to stores, bars and restaurants. Shipments tell you what the distributor bought from you. Depletions tell you what they sold. For most craft brands, it's the only window into where the product actually went.
What's in it
Usually the account name and address, the product, size and pack, the quantity sold, and the reporting period. Some distributors send every invoice line. Others send one monthly total per product with no account detail at all.
The more account detail you get, the more the report can tell you. A product total says a SKU moved 25 cases. Account detail says which 11 stores and bars bought them.
Watch the "cases" column
One distributor's case is 6 bottles, another's is 12, and some report 9-liter equivalents. Ask what the column means before you compare two reports or add them together. See What are case equivalents?
What it won't tell you
What's on the shelf today, or what consumers bought. An account that took 10 cases in March might still be sitting on 8 of them. It also won't tell you why an account changed its order. That takes a conversation with the distributor or the buyer.
Before you read too much into it
Check the dates cover a full period. Look for returns and credits showing as negative numbers. If an account is missing, make sure it really didn't buy and isn't just filtered out of the export.
Where to start
Pull the accounts that bought last quarter and didn't this month. That's your follow-up list, and it's usually the most useful thing a depletion report gives you.
Want the long version? Read How to Read a Distributor Depletion Report: A Craft Distiller's Guide in Field Notes.