How Can I Award a Spiff to My Salespeople?

A "Spiff" - also known as a "SPIF" or "SPIV" - is an immediate bonus to an employee or salesperson for the sale of an item. Whereas an employee's commission may be based on the total amount of an invoice or the total of their sales for a particular time period, a Spiff is either a flat amount or a percentage of the price of a single item.

Spiffs are a great way to promote the sale of a particular item or service. By rewarding an employee or salesperson for that item, they are more likely to pitch that item or service to more customers. Thus providing more of a profit to both you and the salesperson.

How do I setup a Spiff for an Inventory Item?

Spiffs are setup on a per item basis and each item can be assigned a Flat Amount amount or a percentage of the Price.

1. Click the Item List button on the icon bar.  
2. Search for and open the item you wish to assign a Spiff to.
3. In the Inventory Entry screen, look for the Spiff fields at the bottom-left corner of the screen.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Spiff Method field, select either Flat Amount or Percent of Price.  The Percent of Price option will calculate a percentage of the price of the item itself (Price A, B or C).
5. In the Spiff Value field, assign the amount you want to award an employee.  This will either be a percent or a flat dollar value.
6. If you want this item excluded from commission amounts, uncheck the Calculate Commissions box.  
7. Click Save.

How do I setup a Spiff for a Billing Code?

Much like an Inventory item, a Spiff can be assigned to a Billing Code on a per item basis. This is great for encouraging your technicians to sell Agreements while they are at a customer's location.

1. Head to the Sales menu and click on Enter Billing Codes.
2. Click Add New to create a new Billing Code or double-click on an existing code to edit it.  
3. You'll find your Spiff fields in the lower-right quadrant of the Enter Billing Codes screen.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Spiff Method field, select either Flat Amount or Percent of Price.  The Percent of Price option will calculate a percentage of the price of the item itself (Rate field).
5. In the Spiff Value field, assign the amount you want to award an employee.  This will either be a percent or a flat dollar value.
6. If you want this code excluded from commission amounts, uncheck the Calculate Commissions box.  
7. Click Save.

Spiffs and Assemblies

When an Inventory item or a Billing Code is added as a sub-item to an Assembly, the price is automatically omitted from that item. When an Assembly is created and used, it is assigned its own Price, so the prices of the sub-items are ignored. For this reason, assigning a Spiff to one of the sub-items that uses the Percent of Price method will not work. In order to assign a Spiff to an Assembly and have it calculate correctly on the Commission Report, the Spiff Method will need to be Flat Amount with a designated dollar amount entered for the Spiff Value.

Spiff Reporting

A Spiff is earned as soon as an item containing a Spiff is added to an invoice. While Commissions can be earned by both a Sales Person and Technicians, a Spiff cannot be split amongst multiple employees. Only the name in the Sales Person field will be assigned Spiff amounts. The total amount earned through Spiffs will be displayed on the Commission Report, found under Sales → Reports.

When running the Commission Report for Commissions and Spiffs, make sure to always run the report for the same length of time. Otherwise, reported amounts may overlap and the amount earned by a Sales Person may not be accurate.

For example: If the Commission Report is run for 12/1/2014 through 12/14/2014, it may report that a Sales Person has earned $35 in Spiffs. If the report is later run again for 12/7/2014 through 12/21/2014, any invoices dated between 12/7/2014 and 12/14/2014 will have been counted twice and may double the amount of any existing Spiffs and Commissions. Make sure your reporting dates never overlap!

Additional Information

Spiff tracking is available for reporting purposes only and will not transfer to payroll in your accounting system.