
Recoverable Draw
There are two different types of sales commission draws– recoverable and non-recoverable. A recoverable draw against commission is money paid to a sales rep paid from the future commission they earn.Continue Reading
What is shadow accounting?
Broadly speaking, the term shadow accounting refers to the practice of maintaining financial records and calculations in a separate system that lives outside any official sources of truth. Shadow accounting often happens at the team or department level and can happen in conjunction with official record-keeping or workflows.
In sales specifically, shadow accounting often refers to the practice of individual reps keeping track of their own deals and commissions for the sake of ensuring an accurate paycheck down the line.
Shadow accounting, also known as shadow auditing, is common on sales teams where there is a history of commission errors. The reason for this is simple, a single commission mistake can fracture the trust between sales and finance. Once that trust is broken, reps take extra measures to keep an accurate record of their own pay so they have the information they need to file disputes and make sure they’re getting paid what they’re owed.
Another common reason for shadow accounting on sales teams is a lack of visibility into sales compensation. If a rep feels they don’t have a way to quickly check how and why they’re paid, they’ll create their own tracking mechanism.
On the surface, shadow accounting may seem harmless. After all, it makes sense. If you don’t have what you need, creating it for yourself is proactive… right? Wrong. Let’s take a look at why shadow accounting is likely hurting your sales organization:
So how should you actually decide whether you want to use Finance or Sales Ops to run commissions? The answer should vary for every company but we’ve pulled together a handy decision framework for you.
Look at the factors below and add up points in the Finance and Sales Ops columns. It’s certainly not a perfect science but it can give you a sense of which organization would be best suited to run commissions at your company.
The current state of the art is to use Salesforce + Excel. That’s how most organizations do their commissions. But we are on the cusp of another seminal change in business software. In this article, I’ll show you how you could use Salesforce to calculate your commissions and why you should use Spiff.
Convincing your boss to sign off on more resources for sales comp can feel like an uphill battle. After all, does your organization really need to sink even more money into sales compensation? The short answer is, yes.
Managing your biggest line item with disjointed commission spreadsheets or clunky legacy software muzzles efficiency, motivation, and ultimately growth. It’s a risk your company can’t afford to take— especially now, with more talk of an impending recession each day.