One of the key factors to develop a successful eCommerce business is to build strong relationships with your channel partners (distributors, resellers, affiliates, and influencers). Through their efforts, you are able to reach customers that you might not have had access to before.
With the decentralization of eCommerce, self-employed, and freelance workers, businesses have had to adapt to new strategies for commission payouts.
The way you decide to pay your channel partners plays a tremendous role in your business. Sending invoices, processing payments manually (or by using a spreadsheet), and keeping track of commissions can be overwhelming. It’s much easier to let the computer do the grunt work than it is to manually process hundreds of payments!
So, if you are still using (and struggling) with Excel in getting your commission payouts completed, here are 4 reasons why you should automate them.
1. Remove Manual Calculation Errors
Spreadsheets are a powerful tool to manage your business. They streamline all your crucial data, which is particularly useful for your finances. But there is a lot of work involved in maintaining a spreadsheet—and mistakes can be costly.
Studies find that 9 out of 10 spreadsheets (88%) contain errors. Most of these problems are caused by human error and are completely avoidable.
Automating commission payouts keeps your commission data organized, structured and accurate. Automation minimizes human error—so you can be confident in your data and trust that your decisions are backed by fact.
2. Timely Commissions Payouts
Manual commission calculation processes consume a significant amount of time and for this reason, result in payment delays. Some businesses may take months to calculate commissions. This means they can’t have the flexibility to pay their channel partners as frequently as they want, and also means that financial planning will be impacted if there are any delays or errors.
By automating your commission payouts, you ensure that you’re maintaining a healthy relationship with your channel partners. Also, when your partners receive timely payments, they are able to establish a better relationship with their customers because they have more resources at hand to invest in growth.
3. Double Data Entry Shunning
Avoiding data entry duplication is a huge part of making sure your business runs efficiently.
Manual data entry is a time-consuming process that costs a lot of manpower to a business. When capturing critical data, even a small error can have major consequences. Commission payouts are one area where you don’t want to take any chances.
Using digital technologies to draw information from an existing database is an excellent way to avoid data entry errors. It allows you to get the data directly into your commission system. A lot of time and effort can be saved during this process.
You don’t have to worry about making mistakes as there is only one place the data is being entered.
4. Records Tracking
When you’re using outdated record-keeping methods, there can be a lot of room for errors. The time required for manual tracking of all information can put a tremendous amount of stress on you — not to mention the accuracy issues that can come with manually recording everything.
The benefits of electronic records and records management are obvious. If a product is sold, it’s entered into the system. If a sale has been made, it’s added to the sales records and then a payment transfer is initiated.
Automated commission payouts take out all the guesswork. There are a number of benefits to using an automated system for commission payouts record tracking:
- It allows you to track sales in real-time with full transparency
- You can see who was involved in each sale at any time
- It’s less likely that someone will lose money if you’ve stored their information electronically
Conclusion
By automating the process of updating your commission calculations, you don’t have to worry about accidentally entering an extra zero, or incorrectly entering the number of days before the payouts. You minimize errors, maximize speed, and get your channel partners paid faster with no more manual processing.
Ready to experience the automation? Try UCX.
Book a demo and get your commission payouts automated! https://ucxtech.com/