Background

Commission tracking gives you the ability to track commissions for an employee or a vendor salesperson. A Commission Rate Level is created that will charge a flat amount or percentage per item or activity and can be assigned to each salesperson. A custom rate level can also be created using both amounts and percentages for items and activities. A commission is then calculated on a sale, based on either the date of the sale or when payment is received. The commission can then be paid by check to a vendor/subcontractor or as a paycheck for an employee. 

Creating a Commission Rate Level

To create a commission rate level:

1. Select Lists on the menu bar at the top of the screen and click on Sales & Purchases Information and Commission Rate Levels.
2. Click on New to create a commission rate level.
3. Enter the name, type and payment option selections. If Custom Rate per Item/Activity is selected as the type of rate, a list of items/activities will appear.

Note:

1. Select the items/activities you want to assign this rate level.
2. Enter either the amount, percentage or percentage of margin you want for this rate level.
3. Click OK to accept the changes and close the window. The Commission Rate Levels window reappears displaying the rates you created.

Assigning a Default Commission Rate to an Employee

Before entering a sale, you can choose to add a default commission rate level to an employee so every time you create an invoice and add the desired employee, a default commission rate will be applied.

1. Select Lists on the menu bar at the top of the screen and select Card List from the drop down.
2. Click the Employee tab and select the employee you want to assign a commission rate to and click Edit or click New to create a new employee card.
3. Click the Card Details tab and select the Commission Rate from the drop down menu.
4. Click Use Commission Rate.
5. Click the Payroll Details tab and select Wages.
6. Select the Linked Commission Category from the drop down list.
7. Click Use Category to assign a payroll category to the employee for commissions.
8. Click OK to accept the changes and close the window.

Creating a Sale with a Commission Rate Applied

To use a commission rate on a sale:

1. Go to the Sales module and click Enter Sales.
2. Enter your sales information.
3. On the bottom left of the invoice form, click on the Salesperson drop-down and select the salesperson that pertains to the sale.
4. Once you select the Vendor/Employee as a salesperson, you will see a percentage sign appear to the right of the name, click on this percent sign and a Invoice Commission Information window will appear. The Commission column is the only amount that can be edited in this window. If the amount in this column is changed an asterisk will appear next to the new amount. To return to the original calculation, click the Recalc button.
5. Click OK to finalize any changes you have made, then proceed to record your sale.
   

Paying Commission to your Salesperson (Employee or Vendor)

Note: Time Sheets are NOT necessary to process Commission for payroll even for hourly employees.

If for some reason you need to include the Commission wage on a Time Sheet for an hourly employee you would need to do so before recording payroll for the desired Employees. Adding the commission wage to a Time Sheet is the same as adding an hourly wage you can add the commission wage below the hourly wage on a Time Sheet.

The typical way to pay commission is to apply a salesperson to an invoice with their commission rate applied. After that you can simply process payroll and as long as the commission is marked “Earned” it will display in the Process Payroll window.

Check Commission Status

To check the status of your Employee’s commissions:

1. In the main window of AccountEdge, click on the Sales tab.
2. In this window you will see a blue button called “Salesperson Commissions”.
3. In the Salesperson Commissions window enter the name of the Employee/Vendor and the appropriate date range.

You will now see their “Earned” or “Unearned” commissions from sales. Once you pay an employee through “Process Payroll” that commission will be marked as “Paid”.

Paying an Employee commission using a Payroll Check

You can pay an employee their commission if they are attached as a Salesperson on a sales invoice.

Assuming you have already created a sales invoice, attached the employee as the salesperson with the correct commission rate selected, you can now choose to pay them for their accrued commission.

To pay an employee using a payroll check:

1. Click on the Payroll module in the main window of AccountEdge.
2. Click on “Process Payroll”
3. Select either “Process All Employees Paid” if you have other employees you need to pay at the same time as this commissioned employee or select “Process individual Employee” if you want to only process that employee.
4. Enter the appropriate pay period range, and the payment date.
5. Make sure to check off “Include Salesperson Commissions” and click next to bring you to “Select & Edit Paychecks” window.
6. In this window you will see your employee’s name and to the left of the name you will see a double arrow, click on this and it will open up the actual paycheck to edit and view it. Notice how under the commission wage it will be pre-filled with the dollar amount he/she is owed.
7. Make your additional changes if necessary in the Edit Paycheck window then proceed to record the paycheck.

You have now successfully paid a Salaried Employee their commission that they have earned on a sale using the Payroll module!

Paying a Vendor commission using a Spend Money check

If you have a vendor that you want to record paying their commission outside of Payroll, you can do so using “Spend Money” in the banking module.

Assuming you have already created a sales invoice, attached the vendor as the salesperson with the correct commission rate selected, you can now choose to pay them for their accrued commission. To do so:

1. Go to the Banking module in the main window of AccountEdge.
2. Click on Spend Money
3. Select the Vendor you are paying in the “Card” field on the top left of the yellow check
4. Enter the desired amount of the commission, the date, and check number if applicable
5. On the bottom portion of the Spend Money window(below the yellow check) you will need an allocation account that you keep track of all of your paid commissions. (If you don’t have such an account, please create one - typically its an expense account)
6. After all the information is filled out, click record to finalize the payment.
   

Note: Once you've paid a vendor salesperson for a commission you need to go the further step of marking the commission as paid. Otherwise it will still show as commission earned. You can do this by:

1. Go to Sales > Salesperson Commissions
2. Select the Vendor
3. Check off the sale
4. Click "Mark as Paid" in the bottom right

Tracking Salesperson Commissions with Reports

AccountEdge offers several different reports to track your Employee/Vendor’s commissions in the Index to Reports. Reports such as Sales Summary and Detail, Commissions - Earned and Paid.

To get to these reports:

1. From the menu bar at the top of the screen click on Reports and Index To Reports
2. In the Index of reports click on the Sales tab and scroll down until you see Commissions header in bold.
3. You will see the reports that you can run to track your commissions.

Example: If you run the Sales Detail Commissions report by Employee/Vendor you will see all the sales associated with that Salesperson even if the commission has not yet been paid. Regardless this report will display any sales that has the Salesperson attached, that's why you can search by Employee/Vendor to narrow your results.