When Amesto wanted to accurately monitor and pay out sales commissions, they combined data from multiple sources and automated reporting – eliminating manual processes. In this story, they share how it was done.
Compensation and sales commission is one of the most important tools a company can use to influence sales and help secure the top-line. Amesto’s commission plan is well designed to support their overall goals, but as a result of company acquisitions and changes in business systems, the sales and invoicing data wasn’t structured in a way that made it possible to report commissions on multiple levels.
– We needed to restructure and automate our commission reporting. There was simply no choice. The data requirements and compensation model is too complex to manage any other way, says Stefan Möller, Managing Director for Amesto in Sweden.
As a leading provider of business systems, Amesto’s compensation model is related to both software sales and consulting services. The commission is based on a number of factors including revenues, margin and net profit. Reports are required on many levels for various time periods, organization levels, and products or product groups.
Modifications to existing systems
The underlying sales and financial data used to calculate commission is stored in SuperOffice CRM and Visma Business. Now, to automate reporting, the data from these two sources is combined, restructured and presented on dashboards with Business Analyze, the analytics tool. All three systems are ones that Amesto uses themselves and provides for customers.
– We are fortunate to have the latest systems and in-house capabilities so we can get the most out of our data. When we do these type of projects, we test and learn so that we can also provide this service to our customers should they request it, says Möller.
Structuring data was the first step. Then various logic functions and formulas were applied. The results are displayed on dashboards.
– I created some new reports, explains Per Olav Langås, senior IT consultant. Whenever a new transaction is recorded, the commission report updates. I set reports up with different filters and groupings, so users get different views of the data depending on what they select. Some calculations were a bit tricky because there were special discounts or third party agreements, but there is always a way to do it.
Live dashboards with commissions
Today, compensation is automatically calculated whenever a new invoice is created. The reports are presented on dashboards. The people that have earned commissions, can easily see how much they have earned.
– The sales team seems very happy with the improvements because they can now track their own earnings. This encourages a more stimulating and fair work environment. They really only had estimates before. The more they sell, the more closely they follow the reports, says Möller.
– For us as an organization, it’s necessary to have accurate, updated information. I have several dashboards so I can monitor sales and pipeline, and now there is a new tab for commissions. It’s made life easier and I am really pleased with the changes. This is definitely the way forward, concludes Möller.
