Can Salesforce calculate commissions?

Can I do it?

The question of whether or not Salesforce can calculate commissions for people is a loaded one. It ultimately depends on what you need Salesforce to do in your situation because the extensibility of Salesforce is only limited by your imagination (the underlying force.com platform makes this possible).

If your calculation needs are straightforward like applying a percentage to a quote or opportunity, then it is easy to add a formula field to the object and use that to aggregate a commission amount.  The real-world tells us that a simple plan like this does exist, but is the exception and not the rule. Adding features like tiered-based payments, adjustments, and providing statements will take significant resources to deploy.  You also end up with new customizations that need maintenance, documentation, and adds technical debt to your Org. Luckily, we have taken care of the heavy lifting for you with our application, AgileComp.

AgileComp saves the day

AgileComp is a Salesforce-based system that utilizes data on platform (or data you can load into Salesforce) for sales compensation calculations. 

Once installed, the application can be configured very quickly:

• setup attainment schedules (tier ranges based on either Revenue or GP) that represent a percentage that is paid out for each tier
• setup commission teams to provide common structures and aggregations by teams
• assign attainment schedules to teams
• assign commissionable users

Performing these quick-actions allows you to set a structure around your commissions. This is great for a simple commission plan, but we offer extended functionality to accommodate more complex plans such as:

• split transactions between multiple sales reps (available at the account or document level)
• have a person on a team paid differently than the team as a whole
• guarantee a set dollar amount to a commissionable user
• best of the guaranteed dollar or attained commission value

In addition to being on-platform and extremely easy to administer, another notable advantage of AgileComp commissions is the visibility of data. Your customer (your commissionable users) has all their commission information right where they work in Salesforce!

As part of the standard installation, AgileComp provides a commission statement via a lightning component. This component can be placed on the homepage and accessed from anywhere.

Learn more

To conclude, answering the question “can Salesforce calculate commissions” is ambiguous.  The platform is powerful, but would you, as an admin, manager, or developer want to create this type of customization when there are systems like AgileComp?

CloudFirst Labs handles commissions for you so that you don’t have to worry about running commission statements, changing plans, updating teams, or modifying schedules. We allow admins and developers to focus on operations and improving business outcomes while providing a robust commission system that can be configured by any power user in your company.

Do you want to learn more about how you can easily calculate commissions in Salesforce? Reach out to CloudFirst Labs or read more about AgileComp and find out how we can help today!