Commission Plans


ACom3 supports an unlimited number of client defined commission and bonus plans. All plans make use of client defined business rules and date ranges, and can be setup very easily by non-technical users. The design of the product is such that it provides extensive support for both transactional and summarized forms of commission and bonus payout.

Transactional Computation

This form of payout is common in the insurance and financial services industries (in addition to others) and basically results in a calculated payout for every sales transaction. In other words, transactional computation does not make use of the concept of quota or objectives—there is a payout on every transaction sold. ACom3 supports this concept in an area referred to as Commission Schedules. There is no limit to the number of schedules that can be established in the product.

ACom3 has very strong support for this approach and provides simplified tools to utilize business rules to “drive” transactions to the appropriate commission schedule. All schedules are date sensitive and make use of client defined business rules—in other words—the unique keys found within the transaction, in addition to the information that can be derived from the payee connected to the transaction, result in the application of a specific payout formula. The formula then determines the final payout amount using logic that is easily setup inside of the formula maintenance area of the system.

There is virtually no limit to the number of rules than can be applied to a transaction and there is great deal of power and flexibility in the payout formulas. Common concepts in this area of the system include formulas to support:

  • Simple percentage or unit rates
  • Tiered percentage or units rates based on production
  • Annualization logic to support a wide range of advance concepts
  • Policy age and/or policy holder age based payout (specific to the insurance industry)
  • Dual payouts in which a transaction carries both a unit and percentage payout

This is just a brief summary of the flexibility and power packaged into this area of the system. The true genius of the product lies in the simplicity of design which allows non-technical users to easily setup and manage a wide range of payout schedules without technical intervention. This design also allows for very easy enhancement as new formulas (computation objects) can be easily introduced into the product.

Summarized Compensation

ACom3 supports this concept through the Compensation Plan area of the system. As with Schedules, there are no limits to the number of plans that can be developed, and all plans make use of client defined business rules and payout formulas.

Commission plans differ from schedules in that they typically contain multiple objectives, with each objective carrying a specific quota or goal to be attained. Commission payout is then a function of how the payee performs against the goal. ACom3 allows for an unlimited number of objectives, each operating on their own specific time frames, (weekly, monthly quarterly, custom, etc.), in addition to a wide range of commission payout options based on performance including:

  • Tiered payout percentage or unit rate based on percentage attainment of the goal
  • Flat payout levels based on percentage attainment of the goal
  • Conditional objectives that rely on attainment of another objective, or specific performance measures to be eligible for payout.
  • SPIFF’s or other form of time sensitive bonus payout.
  • Accelerators which pay additional amounts for performance above a set percentage or level

In addition to allowing for unlimited plan design, ACom3 also allows payees to be associated with multiple plans at the same time. This ensures that payees can be easily moved into new positions or play dual roles and can be evaluated and rewarded based on performance in multiple areas or roles.

The overall flexibility and simplicity in this area of the system allows plans to be quickly and easily developed and updated ensuring that rewards and compensation are directly tied to corporate strategy.

Bonus Plans

ACom3 also supports an unlimited number of client defined bonus plans which supports strategic initiatives such as SPIFF's, seasonal bonuses, monthly, quarterly or annual "kicker payments" and other forms of recurring or one time bonuses. Bonus plans can be configured in advance as part of the overall commission plan, or can be defined on demand using any date range desired.

Bonus plans are also rules driven and allow for a wide range of flexibility in terms of performance measurement (units, dollars, margin, referrals, retention, etc.). Payout is also flexible and can result in flat rate, unit rate or percentages, including tiered logic. The use of Content ID's to control the logic behind the plan also allows for very simplified management bonuses without the need to directly connect a payee to the manger (director, VP, etc.).