You Deserve Easier Variable Pay Processes
That’s why it is odd that many ERPs, including Microsoft Dynamics GP and Business Central, deliver only a minimalist built-in solution for variable pay processing. This oversight requires accounting teams to process complex variable comp transactions on spreadsheets. You see the problem?
It’s time for you to eliminate the headache of processing variable compensation.
Eliminating the Issues of Spreadsheet-Based Variable Pay Processing
Spreadsheets are great, but there comes a time when the data they hold outgrows their capabilities. In addition to the obvious problem of error-prone, time-consuming manual entry, some of the biggest spreadsheet issues include overwritten data, mysterious entries, and siloed information that delays payroll processing. All of these lead to hours of work when problems are inevitably discovered.
By adding compensation management software to your Dynamics ERP, you can:
Close Out Periods Easily
Though you can lock certain aspects of spreadsheets, you cannot reliably lock down all the data within those spreadsheets based on a specific timeline. With software purpose-built to handle variable pay processing, you can lock down commission data so your “paid commissions” cannot be changed.
This ensures that your reports and historical commission statements maintain accuracy, which will be a relief to anyone who has had to dig into multiple versions of a spreadsheet to figure out what the real numbers should be.
Keep Track of Payments
One way to (somewhat) prevent overwritten data in a spreadsheet is to keep creating new tabs for each period. This requires you to copy and paste all the cells that hold unpaid commissions data into the new tab. With copy-and-pasting, the question is not “if” there will be an error, but rather “when” will that error happen – and how bad will it be?
Instead of error-prone copy-and-pasting, it’s a better idea to use variable pay processing software, which prevents overpayments of commissions and prevents duplicating commission payments for invoices that were already paid. This increases trust in your process, which keeps your top salespeople motivated.
Deliver an Audit Trail
Mysterious transaction entries are one of the biggest headaches in the finance world. Finding a cell with anomalous data is bad enough, but validating it can be nearly impossible if you cannot track down who entered it, or when.
Good compensation management software will provide a detailed audit trail that helps your team reduce fraud and errors and prevent unauthorized users from making changes to your critical commissions data. Audit trails are also often required to meet compliance mandates, and they provide helpful transparency.
Streamline Monthly Processes
Finally, it takes a lot of time to work with spreadsheet data. With a variable compensation management solution, you can integrate your variable comp data with your ERP and payroll data to ensure that commissions are processed correctly and on time.
As we all know, consistency is the key to streamlined financial management processes and a variable comp solution helps you ensure that solid accounting principles are being followed, and consistent payroll processes are being followed, every pay period. What a relief!
Ready to Eliminate Your Variable Compensation Processing Headaches?
As you have seen, spreadsheets can only get you so far. While they are adequate (though not ideal) for simple variable pay calculations, they can quickly get out of control when invoice payments are delayed, and when applying discounts or different commission rates for varied inventory.
Having to cross reference spreadsheets each pay cycle can also slow down payroll and create additional headaches, which is why you deserve better.
Learn about compensation management software for Microsoft Dynamics.
Contact the Variable Compensation Experts at EthoTech
Since 2002, companies across every sector have relied on EthoTech for the right tool for tracking, calculating, and paying variable compensation. We provide solutions, integration, and support that is focused solely on integrated variable compensation software for Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It’s all we do, and we do it better than anyone.
Want to know if your company would benefit from variable compensation software? We developed this simple matrix to help you discover if variable compensation software is right for your company.