Method Community

I'm looking for some strategy on how to handle this . I've only given it a bit of thought, but will flesh it out more.  I'm sure others will have similar requirements, so I hope this will turn into helpful discussion.

Scenario:

We pay referral fees to other companies, customers, etc. for sending us new clients. We also pay commissions to the technician who performs the job, and sometimes sales commissions to techs who cultivate new customers and referrals.

Example :

Multiple referrals / commissions per transaction

Example: $500 bee removal transaction

So we then pay out once per month to all parties. Hopefully something is left over for us, lol.

Needs:

We need to track these referrals & commissions and we need to pay out in regular intervals.

Keying in referral info at Sales Center  or Field Center stage, etc.  vital. 

Reports: necessary

Portal for Referrers to check on status would be value added, but not needed. 

Discussion:

Quickbooks has one field for "Sales Rep", which I use for the tech who performs the job, but provides no way for multiple reps, so I'm looking for Method to do what I need, as it has more functionality.

Some paths I've thought about:

Items: Create one item for each referer. Pro: easy to track for payouts. Con. Only inputtable by tech at point of sale.

Quickbooks Classes: Create classes for each group of referrers. SubClasses for each referrer.

Method Campaigns: Create one campaign per referrer. Pro: tracking & ROI framework already built in. Cons? Can campaigns hook into vendors (assuming referrers are set up as vendors)

So, that's where I'm at now. I'm still exploring avail. Actions, etc, so I don't yet have a comprehensive understanding of available paths, but thought if I could get some discussion that could help me and others. Also, I'm not opposed to paying for custom development or advice through Method,but I need to get my head wrapped around this a bit more, so at least wanted to flesh out more options and ideas first.

 i wouldnt do any extra items or classes or anything like that--

what u can do is under the "additional info" tab of the customer in the customer center you can define custom

fields for each commission type..

then you can add these fields to your sales order or invoice form and fill them out at time of sale w/ thier initials or whatever..

then when u get ready to pay them pull a cash basis sales report and filter by the commission type custom field--- 

 memorize 3 different sales reports each filtered on the custom field u created in the customer record and the date set to "Last Month"

1. referral fee sales report

2. technision A work sales report

3. origination fee sales report

and run these reports when u get ready to pay out commisisions

this is one way to do it---

the way i actually do it since i only pay commissions to 1099 sales reps is I ask the sales reps to send me

a bill for the commission as soon as it is earned (which is when they bring me the customer payment check) and i enter that bill in quickbooks w/ payment terms due on 1st field filled out

and then i pay them as they come due using the pay bills window--

p.s.

this is all in quickbooks

 Hey,

After reading over both posts, I thought of using the Opportunities screen to track all of this. Create a opportunity for each sale, Here you can document the lead,(we can add more fields for this as well) then you can link the invoice to the opportunity to keep track of what invoices are from what referrer.

The opportunities screen will allow you to enter in the amount you expect, as well you can update it as the project moves forward. Take a look in the opportunities section and see if you come up with any more idea's.

If you would like Method to help you build this screen, please contact your consultant for more information.

Ryan,

Yeah, I like your suggestion of using the opportunities screen to track this. I've been using Opportunities for all calls, etc., and it's working pretty well. Will I be able to link the vendor portal, so the referers can see status of jobs they've referred?

I'm comping the screen and flowcharts now and will probably log some time to discuss.

Nando,

Yeah,running reports on the custome fields in QB will be pretty easy. thanks for the reply! I'm excited about getting this operational. Our season is just starting and it gets wild for a few months! Trying to keep track the referrals manually is tough.

 Hi Richard,

Sure you can build a portal for your vendors to log in and view the status of the jobs they referred. Just remember when you are creating your portal that it has to be based off of 1 tab so whichever screens you want them to view make sure you put them into that tab. You can view the webinar on Portals where I cover how to create portals and it will give you some ideas on how to get started. Good luck :)