Overview
Sales commission programs are possibly the most variable programs conducted by a firm. These programs tend to vary significantly from industry to industry, and many times within companies in an industry. Sales commission programs tend to be different by employees even within a single firm. Because of the highly variable nature of commission calculations, solutions attempting to solve the problem must be highly sophisticated. At the same time, they should not burden the user with additional complexity in their operations. One key area of complexity is allowing data interchange between the customer's existing accounting systems and the commissions system. A commission system that can understand the structure of the accounting system data and seamlessly bring in the appropriate data necessary for calculating commissions can be a huge benefit in reducing the inherent complexity in that process.
QCommission is a powerful, flexible sales commission software tool. It calculates sales people's compensation accurately, quickly and professionally. QCommission is integrated with QuickBooks® but can also be operated stand- alone.
CSV (Comma Separated Value) files are plain-text files with Comma Separated, making them easier to create, easier to import into a spreadsheet or another storage database, regardless of the specific software you're using. Files in the CSV format can be imported to and exported from programs that store data in tables, such as Microsoft Excel etc. It is stored with . csv extension.
Technology
From the CSV/Text files the data will be read and write through the file streams. There are lot of methods available to read/write the data in CSV/Text. QCommission uses the standard .NET techniques to read/write data in CSV file.
QCommission utilizes a technology called QXchange to integrate to other applications including CSV file. Specific data access plug-ins (DAP) for different systems can be added to QXchange to integrate with various data sources. A special DAP for CSV/Text allows QCommission to exchange data with CSV/Text.
Importing Data
Commissions are primarily calculated on Revenue. Revenues are mostly based on invoices added in the accounting system. From the accounting system we can export the data into CSV file then it can be imported into QCommission easily. The various attributes of invoices can be used in the calculation of commissions. In many situations, sales reps are directly associated with invoices. This can be used in properly crediting the invoice to the sales rep prior to calculating commissions. Other data attributes useful in commission calculations include Quantity, Amount, Customer, Product, etc.
A key requirement is the ability to only import transactions for the particular commission period that is being currently processed. The QCommission system automatically understands the date range being processed and only brings in the transactions necessary for proper calculations.
Master Data
In addition to transactional data, QCommission can import master data such as Customer, Item, Vendor, etc. The data imported can include the hierarchy structure. This becomes very useful in calculating commissions based on these various criteria.
Exporting Data
Sales reps are normally people on the payroll of the company. Many companies use the payroll functionality available within their accounting systems to issue the paychecks. In addition to base pay, sales commission payments will need to be processed and provided as paychecks to the employees. QCommission can export the commission information for a specific payee. Sales commission payout information can then be processed as part of the paycheck.
Conclusion
QCommission does a tremendous job, understanding the intricacies of the CSV as well as the complications inherent in the data integration process. With this ability it integrates the two systems in such a manner that the complexity to the customer is reduced to a minimal level.
