Commission Software Checklist

Commission Software Checklist

Don't be fooled by slick demos. Can other providers really handle your data and your commission structure? Ask the right questions. 

Choosing Commission Software

At Sales Cookie, we want you to make an informed decision.  The reality is that many of our competitors:
  1. Require risky long-term contracts
  2. Only support basic commission schemes
  3. Struggle with many commission scenarios (repayments, claw-backs, exceptions, adjustments, true-ups, etc.)
  4. Lack compliance with financial standards
  5. Hold your data hostage

Long-Term Contract - Checklist

Why waste time and money negotiating risky contracts? All to be stuck with a provider which doesn't quite work but you're stuck with.
  1. Do you require a long-term contract? Why?
  2. How am I billed if my sales team grows or shrinks?
  3. Under which conditions can I pause or cancel my subscription?
How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie does NOT require any long-term contract. Avoid long-term commitments.
  2. Sales Cookie only charges you for active payees every month. Pay based on usage.
  3. Cancel or pause your subscription. At any time, for any reason.

Common Commission Scenarios - Checklist

All commission providers handle basic tier structures, but often struggle with other common scenarios.
  1. Is it possible to program exceptions? How you would program a simple rule such as "if the product name starts with P, increase commission by 1.5x"?
  2. How easy is it to make manual adjustments? Are adjustments preserved after re-calculation? Are they visible on rep dashboards?
  3. If a transaction crosses tiers, are you able to calculate a blended commission rate? Can you show the amount earned on each transaction and applied tiers?
  4. Can you automate claw-backs? For example, when a deal cancelled or refunded, can you automatically issue claw-backs? Or do all claw-backs need to be handled manually?
  5. Can you calculate true-up commissions? In this model, past deals are re-processed. Owed commission amounts are re-calculated. Previously paid amounts are deducted (delta).
  6. Can you customize attainment? For example, credit reps based on ARR (with multipliers), but pay commissions over MRR?
  7. Do you support manager plans? For example, create manager override plans or team-based plans? How flexible is manager crediting? 
  8. Do you automate recoverable advances and repayments? For example, can you automate repayment of recoverable advances?
  9. Do you natively support estimated (aka "earned") vs. actual commission? Can we track the unpaid commission liability on each deal?
  10. Can you run complex data queries? For example, can you programmatically examine the sales history to determine if a customer is new?
  11. Can you perform lookups between two data sources? For example, match some records (ex: invoices) to other records (ex: deals) across data source?
  12. Can you detect duplicate payments ? For example, if a deal's date is changed to a future period, will you pay a commission again?

How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie supports advanced reward and filtering formulas. This makes it easy to program simple exceptions or complex commission rules.
  2. Sales Cookie offers 7 different ways to adjust commissions. Adjustments made to individual deals are preserved after re-calculation.
  3. Sales Cookie calculates blended rates when a transaction crosses multiple tiers and tiers are cumulative. Incentive dashboards show which tiers were applied.
  4. Sales Cookie can query the commission history and automatically revert previously paid commissions when a claw-back event is detected (ex: refund).
  5. Sales Cookie can calculate true-up commissions. You can reprocess past deals and pay commission deltas after re-calculating owed amounts.
  6. Sales Cookie fully supports custom attainment metrics. The attainment metric can be totally different from the payout metric.
  7. Sales Cookie has native support for team-based plans. We even supports complex crediting logic to pay managers on appropriate deals. 
  8. Sales Cookie has native support for recoverable advances, repayments, and balance tracking.
  9. Sales Cookie has native support for estimated vs. actual commission. As admin, you can track commission liability. Your reps can review outstanding commissions.
  10. Sales Cookie can perform complex data queries on your entire data set, for example to determine if a customer is new or not based on your sales history.
  11. Sales Cookie can perform lookups across multiple data sources. This is useful in "pay when you get paid" scenarios with 2 systems (ex: CRM + billing).
  12. Sales Cookie automatically detects duplicate payment of commissions.

Commission Management - Checklist

As a commission administrator, you should NOT be stuck with repetitive manual tasks, or working around annoying product limitations.
  1. When a new payee is added, do you need to manually assign them to a plan?
  2. Do you support user aliasing? For example, match on either employee ID, employee name, or employee email?
  3. How do you timestamp inputs such as quotas, rates, etc.? Is it possible to bulk-upload those inputs?
  4. Is there a way to view different plan versions and visualize changes?
  5. How do you handle moving reps to a new team mid-period?
  6. How do you handle moving reps to a new plan mid-period?
  7. Is there a way to monitor data synchronization status?
  8. Do you have a concept of workspaces (ex: sub-entity / sandbox)?
  9. Do you support automatic terms and condition enrollment of reps?
  10. Do you have read-only admin roles? Can you hide certain plans or limit access to certain admins?
  11. Do you support multi-currency? Can I control what payees see?
  12. How many KBs do you have? Do you have recipes, tutorials, videos, etc.?

How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie can automatically assign payees to plans based on their tags / job titles.
  2. Sales Cookie has extensive support for aliases when crediting reps, allowing variations in how they are represented within sales data.
  3. Sales Cookie allows you to timestamp every input. We provide tools to visualize and bulk-upload inputs.
  4. Sales Cookie automatically tracks all plan versions and makes it easy to visualize changes.
  5. Sales Cookie timestamps team memberships, making it easy to move reps from one team to another mid-period.
  6. Sales Cookie timestamps plan memberships, making it easy to move reps from one plan to another mid-period.
  7. Sales Cookie makes it easy to monitor data synchronization status.  
  8. Sales Cookie supports multiple workspaces under the same admin account. 
  9. Sales Cookie can automate enrollment of reps - including collecting e-signatures for plan acceptance. 
  10. Sales Cookie supports read-only admins. Delegation of specific plans to sub-admins is possible. Plans can also be hidden. 
  11. Sales Cookie fully supports multi-currency. You can choose your own conversion rates or market rates. You can choose in which currencies payouts are displayed. 
  12. Sales Cookie offers over 450 KBs with commission scenarios, recipes, best practices, etc. We also have extensive video tutorials and guides. 

Compliance - Checklist

Financial and legal compliance are essential, yet often neglected, aspects of sales incentives.
  1. Do you have a detailed audit log showing every change, manual adjustment, etc.? 
  2. Do you support tracking commission liabilities (differences between earned and paid commissions)? 
  3. Do you support ASC 606 amortization of commission expenses?
  4. Do you capture every plan version? Is a snapshot of the plan taken when calculating commissions?
  5. Can you require reps to accept terms and conditions? Can you collect e-signatures?
  6. Can managers and admin approve statements before release?
  7. Do you have read-only admin roles? Can you hide certain plans or limit access to certain admins?

How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie automatically tracks every change made to your workspace in a detailed audit log.
  2. Sales Cookie makes it easy for you to review and analyze commission liabilities. This is available for admins but also payees.
  3. Sales Cookie fully supports ASC 606 amortization of commission expenses.
  4. Sales Cookie captures every plan version. We take a full snapshot of plan definitions at calculation time.  
  5. Sales Cookie can automate enrollment of reps - including collecting e-signatures for plan acceptance. 
  6. Sales Cookie supports a controlled release process, with the ability for managers to review and approve statements. 
  7. Sales Cookie supports read-only admins. Delegation of specific plans to sub-admins is possible. Plans can also be hidden. 

Data Management - Checklist

Most commission providers accept multiple data sources but are unable to perform cross-data lookups. Others require you to "drop" or rename fields from your source data.
  1. Can I import data from multiple data sources?
  2. Are all field names from my data preserved during import? Can I reference my field names in data queries and commission logic?
  3. Can you perform cross-lookups between two data sources? For example, match some records (ex: invoices) to other records (ex: deals) from a different data source.
  4. Does your solution scale to millions of records? What is the largest data set you handle?

How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie allows you to import and query data from multiple data sources. Everything is query-able from the same data store.
  2. Sales Cookie keeps all your original field names. You can reference them in data queries and commission logic.
  3. Sales Cookie can perform lookups across multiple data sources. This is useful in "pay when you get paid" scenarios with 2 systems (ex: CRM + billing).
  4. Sales Cookie supports customers with millions of records.

Reporting & APIs - Checklist

Not all commission providers have APIs. Don't be stuck with a solution which holds your data hostage. 
  1. Do you have APIs to retrieve data? Any limitation to what data we can retrieve?
  2. Do you have APIs to update data? Which actions can you perform?
  3. Do you have APIs to upload transaction data? How easy is it to use?
  4. Can I connect with Excel, Tableau, PowerBI and build custom reports?
  5. Do you support revenue analytics?

How Sales Cookie handles those scenarios:
  1. Sales Cookie provides the ability to programmatically retrieve all data in your workspace: users, commission rates, payouts, transactions, calculations, etc.
  2. Sales Cookie provides the ability to programmatically update users, teams, rates, etc. 
  3. Sales Cookie makes it very easy to upload transaction data. Simply generate a CSV file and POST it. Or use Zapier, a Web Endpoint, or other APIs.
  4. Sales Cookie lets you build any custom report using Excel, Tableau, PowerBI, etc. This allows you to build any report in addition to many built-in ones.
  5. Sales Cookie offers extensive revenue analytics capabilities. Analyze sales and churn. Find your best and worst customers. Research customer audiences.

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