Direct Commission Rates

In this video, you can find out how to set direct commission rates.

Commission rates let you combine customers, vendors, and items, in order to configure which percentage will apply to each combination, taking into account the date and the profitability of the sale.

You can navigate to the Direct Commission Rates list from the main Commissions menu, from the Manual Setup list of Business Central, using the Tell Me... search box, or through any of the actions available in the Salespeople/Purchasers, Customers and Items lists.

As there are many options and filters that can be set to decide which commission applies to a sales line, this list shows the most commonly used fields. You can choose the Edit action to edit the whole list of options available or personalize the list to show the fields/parameters that you want to use.

Configuration

To set up a commission rate, the following fields are available, grouped by their functionality:

General

Optionally, you can set a period of dates on which the rate will apply.

• Start Date. This is the date from which the defined rate is valid. Optional.
• End Date. This is the date until which the defined rate is valid. Optional.
• Description. You can give the rate a description to help you identify it. Optional.

Filters

These filters will decide whether a sales line should get this commission rate or not. Note that dimension and customer filters are hidden by default (use the Show more link located at the top right to show them).

• Salesperson Filter. The available values are:
  • Salesperson. The rate applies to a particular salesperson.
  • Sales Team. The rate applies to all sales documents assigned to this team.
  • Salesperson Group. The commission will apply to all salespeople assigned to a particular Salespeople Commission Group.
  • All Salespeople. This rate will apply to all salespeople.
• Salesperson Code. The specific salesperson, team, or commission group to which the rate will apply, depending on the value of the previous field.
• Customer Filter. The available values are:
  • Customer. The rate applies to a particular customer.
  • Customer Group. The commission will apply to all customers assigned to a particular Customer Commission Group.
  • All Customers. This rate will apply to all customers.
• Customer Code. The specific customer or commission group to which the rate will apply, depending on the value of the previous field.
• Type Filter. Sets to which sales lines the rate will apply:
  • Item. The rate applies to a specific item.
  • Resource. The rate applies to a specific resource.
  • GL Account. The rate applies to a specific GL account.
  • Item Charge The rate applies to a specific item charge.
  • All Items. The rate applies to all lines of type Item.
  • All Resources. The rate applies to all lines of type Resource.
  • All GL Accounts. The rate applies to all lines of type GL Account.
  • All Item Charges. The rate applies to all lines of type Item Charge.
  • Item Commission Group. The rate will apply to any element assigned to an item group
  • Advanced Filter. The rate applies to all elements included in the advanced filter.
  • All. The rate applies to all lines of types Item, Resource, GL Account and Item Charge.
• Sales Territory. The rate will only apply to sales documents sold in this sales territory.
• Dimension Filter 1. Specifies a dimension filter. If specified, the rate will only apply to sales lines with this combination of dimension code and dimension value.
• Dimension Filter 2. Specifies an additional dimension filter. If specified, the rate will only apply to sales lines with this combination of dimension code and dimension value.

Commission

The commission will apply to sales lines when the selected filters are met.

• Commission %. This is the commission percentage that the salesperson will get. The base amount on which this percentage will be applied is the line amount with all discounts applied and before taxes.
• Commission/Unit. A fixed commission amount will be given for each unit sold. Will be added to the commission amount obtained after applying the commission %.
• Commission Base Amount. The commission % can be applied to the sales amount or profit margin of each line. By default, the app obtains the profit margin by subtracting the total cost of the line from its sales amount, but this can be customized using events.
• Commission For. By default, commission rates will apply to the salesperson assigned to the sales document/line, but you can also set commissions for additional salespeople in the sales document, as well as for the team manager and other roles within the team assigned to the sale.
• Team Role. If you specify that you are going to set a commission for a specific role, in the Commission For field, here you can select the role that will get the commission.

Additional Conditions

You can set discount and profitability requirements. In fact, you could set multiple commission rates with a different maximum discount, to give a different commission % depending on the discount applied by the salesperson.

• Maximum Discount %. The maximum discount % that can be applied to a sales line in order to get this commission. If the line has a higher discount %, this commission will not be applied. You can learn more about how this discount is calculated in the sales discounts section of the manual.
• Minimum Discount %. Available as an additional field if you click on Show more, you can actually set a minimum discount. You don't need to use it this field if you want to set tiered commissions based on discounts (the higher the discount the lower the commission), as just setting the Maximum Discount would be enough, but it can be useful if you actually give a higher commission for a higher discount.
• Minimum Profitability %. It is a percentage below which no commission is applied. The app obtains this value by using this formula on the fields of the sales line: ("Unit Price" - "Unit Cost") / ("Unit Price" * 100).
• Applies To. By default commission rates will apply to all sales lines, but you can add special conditions for Sales Below Cost, so that you can define commission penalties for the salesperson when this happens.

Document Filters

These let you specify filters based on the actual sales document, rather than on the individual line for which commissions are being calculated.

Currently, the only option available is Min. Document Profitability %, which lets you set a minimum margin % that has to be achieved for the whole document (not including lines excluded from sales stats), rather than for the individual line.

In order to set the filter you'll need to enable the Document Profitability Filter as, if you give commissions based on each individual line, you don't necessarily want to restrict commissions to the fact that the document has been profitable (you might decide to deduct negative margins from the salesperson commissions, using the Applies To field in the Additional Conditions tab, instead).

Customized Conditions

If you need to add extra filters or logic to the way the app calculates the rate that applies in each case, you can find info on how to do it in the developer's chapter of the manual.

The app has been designed so that these customizations can be easily done by customers with some development knowledge, by your partner, or by us if needed.