REFERENCE · DEPLETION DATA

How to read a distributor depletion report

A depletion report shows what a distributor sold from its inventory to off-premise (store) and on-premise (bar and restaurant) retail accounts, usually listed by account, product, package and date. Depletions differ from shipments (supplier to distributor) and from sell-through (retailer to consumer). To read one, find the header row, drop subtotals, keep returns negative and convert packages to case equivalents.

Last updated September 29, 2026

The columns you’ll usually see

Names and layouts vary by distributor and system, so map columns by meaning, not position.

An invoice date is when the sale was billed; don’t treat it as the depletion date unless your report says so. Excel date serials follow the workbook’s own date system.

Checklist: reading the report step by step

1. Find the real header row. Skip title, company, date-range and blank rows above it, and banner or notes rows below it.
2. Drop total and subtotal rows before adding anything up. Look for “Total for …”, “TOTAL”, grand totals and blank-name rows that carry sums.
3. Carry grouped account or product names down. Grouped reports print a name once, on the group’s opening row; fill it into the rows below.
4. Keep returns and credits as negative volume. Credit memos, RA/RMA lines and negative quantities subtract from volume. Never take absolute values.
5. Separate physical cases from equivalized cases. “Cases” usually means physical cases. A column labeled CE, Eq Cases or 9L is usually already equivalized, but check a few rows against units × package size before using it. A “CE” column that equals total oz ÷ 192 uses the soft-drink unit case, not the 288 oz beer CE; a “9L” column whose values equal gallons ÷ 2.25 holds beer CE. A 12/16 can case is 1 physical case but 0.67 CE; a 30-pack of 12 oz cans (30/12) is 1 retail unit but 1.25 CE.
6. Read the package from the product name. Names such as “Hazy IPA - 1/2bbl” or “Pils 6pk 16oz” carry the package. Split brand from package when the pattern is clear, keep the original text beside your reading, and leave the package unknown when it is ambiguous.
7. Convert to case equivalents. Beer: CE = total fl oz ÷ 288 = gallons ÷ 2.25, so a 31-gallon barrel is 13.78 CE and a 1/2 BBL keg (15.5 gal) is 6.89 CE. Wine and spirits: 9-liter cases = total mL ÷ 9,000 (a 9-liter case is 12 × 750 mL). Report each category in its own unit. Full tables: Case equivalents.
8. Exclude deposits from volume. Keg deposits (“KEG DEP”, “SHELL”), empty-keg returns (“EMPTY”) bottle deposits and California Redemption Value (CRV) are money, not liquid. An empty-keg return reverses a deposit, not volume.
9. Treat breakage, samples and transfers separately. They are not retail sales. Free goods still moved liquid, so count them in volume and flag them in revenue. What counts as a depletion varies by distributor; some include breakage, samples or returns and some do not. Keep free goods, samples and breakage as their own lines so they can be included or excluded.
10. Repacks: use the line’s own pack. A repacked line differs from the item master’s configuration. Variety and combo packs are computed from the pack’s own size.
11. A missing amount is unknown, not zero. Keep kegs, CE and dollars as separate measures.
12. Watch for notation traps. See the table below.

A six-pack is written 6PK or 6/12, so 1/6 is almost never a pack. A 1/2 BBL keg holds 15.5 gal (6.89 CE), not 50 L.

Worked example

The file’s Total row (6) adds 1 net half-barrel to 5 cases as if they were the same unit. Summing every row including the Total double-counts to 12, and taking absolute values would count the return as a sale (8). Clean result: 1 net half-barrel = 6.89 CE, plus 5 cases of 4/6/12 oz = 5.00 CE, total 11.89 CE.

Fields in a VIP SRS export

As described in a third-party specification of the VIP SRS export formats, in which the sales file is version 5.1; your layout may differ.

RSDEPOS and RSCRV carry four implied decimal places. RSTRTYPE codes:

• R: retail sales (the default)
• S: supplier samples
• B: warehouse breakage
• T: warehouse or distributor transfer
• E: revenue adjustment, current month
• V: revenue adjustment, following month

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Sources

1. 27 CFR 25.11, Meaning of terms (barrel = 31 US gallons; gallon = 231 cubic inches).
2. 27 CFR 25.156, Determination of tax on keg beer (authorized fractional barrels, incl. 1/2 and 1/6; 50 L = 0.42608 barrel).
3. NBWA, Industry Fast Facts (one barrel = 31 gallons or 13.78 24/12 case equivalents).
4. Aptean Apprise help, Vermont Information Processing Export Format (HTTP; third-party description of VIP SRS export record layouts: sales file v5.1, other files v3.0).
5. Small Batch Standard, Case Equivalents (a CE is 24 × 12 oz; 1 BBL = 13.78 CE; 1/2 BBL = 6.89 CE).
6. Wine Spectator, When Wine Spectator lists a wine’s production volume, are these 6-bottle cases or 12-bottle cases? (9-liter units, the equivalent of 12 × 750 mL).
7. American Craft Spirits Association, Proof Gallons to Cases (a case is 12 750 mL bottles, 9 liters).
8. Coca-Cola FEMSA, 4Q25 results (soft-drink unit case = 192 oz, 24 × 8 oz).
9. Dimensional Insight, What’s the Difference Between Shipments, Depletions, and Sell-Through (shipments: supplier to distributor; depletions: distributor to retailer; sell-through: sold to the end consumer).
10. Dimensional Insight, Challenges with Distributor Data Reporting (what counts as a depletion varies between distributors).