3 Things To Look for in a Sales Compensation Management Solution

Take the confusion out of commission tracking and reporting with a sales compensation management solution (SCMS) that does the work for you. An effective SCMS automates and simplifies the process of managing commissions, bonuses, and other incentive-based benefits. From planning to payout, it works at every level of your business, from providing incentives for your employees to offering better data visibility for your finance and accounting departments. But not all systems are equal — here are three benefits to look for in a quality SCMS.

Automates and simplifies your processes

Swimming in spreadsheets or still using out-of-date software to manage your compensation? These traditional yet older methods take weeks to complete, and they open you up to human calculation errors that could end up costing you money and turning away top talent. A SCMS streamlines these time-consuming manual processes by centralizing data from multiple CRMs and technology stacks. Calculations are automatically generated and are error-free, therefore transforming the compensation process from weeks to days. What does this mean for you? Faster month-end closing, more transparent — and accurate — commission tracking, and more time to focus on growing your business.

SalesVista's SCMS is a cloud-based platform and makes it easy to set user-level access and control the sharing of data across authorized users in different departments. Instead of each authorized user accessing their own data management software or Excel spreadsheet, they can now access accurate, real-time company data from a central, web-based database. This prevents miscommunication and miscalculations — everyone is working with the same up-to-date information.

Provides the data transparency that drives growth

Centralizing compensation data not only streamlines your internal processes but also offers data transparency for reporting and auditing. For your finance and accounting departments, this means easier tracking and fewer errors, and quickly accessing the necessary information. It also makes it easier to explain compensation plans to managers and employees.

The automated system provides an audit trail for financial processes, while also providing the transparency needed for intelligent business forecasting. A good SCMS helps with budget planning, recruiting, and retaining top talent, and analyzing areas for business growth. Transparency helps explain how employee commissions are calculated and helps plan employee bonuses and pay adjustments. This same data can also be used to better plan employee incentive programs and create customized KPIs for improved workplace performance.

Reduces risk with better control

Manual compensation management is fraught with potential risk. There's the risk of human error and inaccurate data processing. By using rules-based workflow and approval standards, an SCMS provides automated processes to improve governance of compensation for sales, finance, and accounting managers. With guidelines like ASC 606, and Subtopic 340-40, automating workflows helps ensure compliance can be met with trackable oversight and audit checkpoints — improving decision-making processes and reducing financial risk.