Recipe - How To Setup "Pay When You Get Paid" Plans (2 Systems)

Recipe - How To Setup "Pay When You Get Paid" Plans (2 Systems)


Advanced Setup
This is an advanced setup because two different timelines are involved. One timeline is associated with closing deals. Another timeline is associated with receiving payments. Often, 2 systems are involved as well (ex: a CRM system and a billing system). You will need to create 2 plans which will work together.

This article applies if you want to:
  • Determine commission rates based on closing deals (ex: closing opportunities) 
  • Issue actual commissions when you receive payment (ex: receiving payments)
  • You use different systems for tracking closed deals (ex: SalesForce) vs. payments (ex: QuickBooks)

Becoming Familiar With General Plan Setup
We first recommend first reading this article to become familiar with fundamental mechanisms of plan configuration. We also recommend first reading this other article to understand how "pay when you get paid" plans work.

Estimated vs. Issued Commissions 
We will create two plans which will work together:
  • One estimated plan will estimate commissions based on closing deals
  • One due plan will issue commissions when you get paid

This will allow your reps to see:
  • How much to expect in commissions as they close deals
  • How much is due to them as payments are received
  • Which deals are outstanding / awaiting payment

The estimated plan will establish a commission rate for each deal and payee based on closed deal attainment. The due plan will process payments, lookup payees, lookup the estimated commission rates, and apply this rate to payment amounts. For example, if a rep closed a large opportunity worth $100K, this rep may receive an estimated commission of 10% based on attainment. However, if the payment is only $96K, you will then pay 10% of $96K.

=============== Estimated Commission Plan Setup ===============

Check Your Data Import
The estimated commission plan will process records from your CRM system (ex: closed opportunities). Make sure you've imported relevant data from your CRM system.

Specify Plan Targets
The goal here is to ensure the plan targets the right individuals or teams. Follow this article to specify plan targets.

Select Crediting Field
The goal here is to ensure the plan credits targets correctly when processing transactions. Follow this article to specify the crediting field.

Select Eligible Transactions - Filtering
The goal here is to ensure the plan only processes eligible transactions based on a criterion. For estimated commission plans, you could create a query which filters transactions to those with a "Closed Date" set. You may also want to restrict records to those from your CRM system (not billing system). Follow this article to filter transactions.



Select Eligible Transactions - Effective Date
The goal here is to ensure the plan only processes transactions within the calculation period based on each transaction's date. For estimated commission plans, you could select the "Closed Date" field as the effective date to determine which transactions are eligible for each calculation period. Follow this article to set your effective date field.



Define Attainment
The goal here is to define attainment for your plan. Follow this article to configure attainment.

Refine Tier Behaviors
The goal here is to define how tiers work. Follow this article to refine tier behaviors. Make sure to select the appropriate option to show (and calculate) a commission percentage such as this one. 



Define Rewards
The goal here is to add rewards to each attainment level. Follow this article to define rewards. Make sure to check the estimated checkbox.



=============== Due Commission Plan Setup ===============

Check Your Data Import
The due commission plan will process paid records from your billing system (ex: QuickBooks). The default should be to sync invoices (or invoice line items). However, if you receive payments incrementally on each invoice AND you want to issue commissions on each payment (not just when the invoice is paid in full), you should sync payment records instead. Indeed, in this case, we need to know how much was received, and when.

When a payment is received, we need to know which CRM record (ex: opportunity record) it is associated with, so we can determine payees and commission rates (established by your estimated commission plan). Therefore, there should be some type of unique ID within your invoices, which refer to records within your CRM system (ex: opportunity ID). For example, you could add a custom field to your invoices, tracking the associated opportunity ID. This is explained further here.

Specify Plan Targets
The goal here is to ensure the plan targets the right individuals or teams. Follow this article to specify plan targets.

Select Crediting Field
The goal here is to ensure the plan credits targets correctly when processing transactions. Follow this article to specify the crediting field.

However, your payment records probably do NOT specify who the payee should be. If so, you can use a custom crediting rule to a/ grab the CRM unique ID from the payment record b/ lookup payees who qualified for an estimated commission. Here is what you could use:



  • The first parameter (false) allows lookup of both released and unreleased estimated commissions
  • The second parameter (true) indicates that you only want to lookup estimated commissions
  • The third parameter ($opportunityId) is the ID of the associated CRM record
  • The fourth parameter is the unique ID of the estimated plan associated with your due plan

Select Eligible Transactions - Filtering
The goal here is to ensure the plan only processes eligible transactions based on a criterion. For due commission plans, you could create a query which filters transactions to those having a "Payment Date" set. You could also decide to filter records such that the balance must be zero. You may also want to restrict records to those from your billing system (not CRM system). Follow this article to filter transactions.

      

Select Eligible Transactions - Effective Date
The goal here is to ensure the plan only processes transactions within the calculation period based on each transaction's date. For due commission plans, you should select the "Payment Date" field as the effective date to determine which transactions are eligible for each calculation period. Follow this article to set your effective date field.



Define Attainment
Since the estimated plan determines attainment (and commission rates), the due plan doesn't need to deal with attainment. So you could just have one attainment level like this:

   

Refine Tier Behaviors
Since the estimated plan determines attainment (and commission rates), the due plan doesn't need to deal with attainment. You can ignore this part.

Define Rewards
The goal here is to add a single reward to your attainment level. Follow this article to define rewards. For due commission plans, you want to a/ grab the CRM unique ID from the payment record b/ lookup the estimated commission rate and c/ apply it to the payment amount. Here is what you could use:



  • The first parameter ($beneficiaryId) is the payee the reward will be assigned to
  • The second parameter (false) allows lookup of both released and unreleased estimated commissions
  • The third parameter (true) indicates that you only want to lookup estimated commissions
  • The fourth parameter ($opportunityId) is the ID of the associated CRM record
  • The fifth parameter is the unique ID of the estimated plan associated with your due plan

=============== Associating Plans ===============
To create a dependency between your plans, you need to set an advanced option:
  1. Edit your due commission plan
  2. Go to the Calculations tab
  3. In advanced options, add a dependency on your estimated plan 



=============== Configuring Withholdings ===============
To show a list of withheld deals awaiting payment to your reps, refer to this article.



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