Manual data entry and Excel are ubiquitous in the world of sales commissions. However, per Forbes, an estimated 88% of spreadsheets contain mistakes. These calculation errors combined with the time, effort, and complexity associated with the overall sales commission process equate to frustrated sales professionals. As a critical, complex, and time-consuming process, calculating and tracking Sales Commissions is a prime use case for Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Due to comp plan customization/complexity and lack of the necessary payroll integrations (ex., Sales numbers, CRM data, Gross Profit figures, etc.), most organizations utilize manual Excel spreadsheets to track and pay sales commissions. In addition to introducing errors into the commission calculations, the laborious manual process is typically executed mere hours before the quarterly commission payroll run, prohibiting real-time visibility to this crucial information for the sales team. Due to this lack of data, sales pros must spend time creating manual “tracking sheets” (that never seem to reconcile to the payouts – resulting in additional wasted time chasing down discrepancies).
Robotic Process Automation can address these issues and bring numerous benefits to the Sales Commission process. Specifically, RPA can be utilized to:
Re-engineer your complicated legacy, Excel-based commission calculators.
RPA allows for the programmatic calculation of commission amounts, dramatically improving the consistency and correctness of commission calculations.
Automate required integration feeds.
RPA bots can automatically retrieve all necessary calculation information (ex. GL, CRM, Payroll, Network Drives, etc.) required to calculate commission amounts, removing the time needed for manual data entry (and its associated errors).
Provide sales professionals timely commission reporting data.
Utilizing RPA to automate commission calculations, performance data can be posted to sales dashboards and automatically distributed via email as soon as available, eliminating the need for separate manual “tracking sheets.”
Increase transparency and trust in the sales commission process.
As automating a process with RPA typically provides 90%+ increases in Quality and Compliance, sales professionals spend less time chasing errors and more time chasing sales.
Utilizing RPA, you can reduce the effort and frustration associated with your current Sales Commission process. Removing laborious commission calculation work from your back-office team and eliminating commission confusion with your sales professionals.
Contact us today to conquer your commission consternation with a customized RPA-powered automation solution.