Payments Glossary

Accelerator Payment

An accelerator payment is an overachievement payment for attainment over 100%. Commission rates and quota rates move to an accelerated rate when the Participant achieves the annual quota. Sometimes people use this term like ramped rates and would qualify the idea of the rate to be paid over quota in another way such as: "Over quota accelerator".

Accruals

Accruals are the estimation of payment expenses based on earnings. Because of the large amount of money spent on commissions, it is customary for the compensation administrator to calculate accruals prior to the actual payment of commissions.

As Earned

As Earned describes a scenario where the timing of payment made occurs in the same period the attainment of the incentive was reached.

Award

An award is a form of payment that is given in the context of a recognized event. Awards can be in the form of money, prizes, plaques, or public recognition.

Base Rate

The initial rate paid for expected performance. The base rate may be applied up to 100% of the quota or goal.

Base Salary

A base salary is a fixed payment amount that can be paid monthly, semi-monthly, weekly, depending on the company's policy.

Claw-Back

A clawback is when an overpayment is taken back or recovered. See Recovery.

Formula

A formula is a mathematical calculation that determines the payout amount for an incentive measure such as a commission or bonus.

Liability

Liability arises when the Participants is overpaid. Overpayments can result from returns, cancellations, processing errors, split claims, and other related causes.

Overpayment

An overpayment occurs when a rep has been paid more than they earned resulting from canceled orders, processing or crediting errors, or other related causes.

Payment

A recipient of a calculated commission has now received monetary payment for the commission. It is also what a sales rep has earned and has been paid out.

Payout Frequency

The payout frequency is the timing of incentive payments. The frequency can be monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.

Releases

A payment that is moved from a Held status to a Payout status. Payments are held either because the payment frequency is less frequent than the calculation frequency (e.g. calculate monthly but pay quarterly). For this type of payment, releases are automatic. Payments can also be held and require a manual release. This is applicable if you build Hold/Release rules within the Payment setup of the plan wizard. These deals can be released manually or through an import.

Recovery

There are two types of recoveries within Xactly Express. The first type is a recovery associated to a Liability balance. Liabilities are created when the total payout for a payee for a period is negative. The result of a negative payout is a 0 payout and a corresponding liability is created. This liability can be recovered through the Manual Adjustment section by the Admin. The second type of recovery is related to a Draw. When a Draw is paid out, the amount of Draw paid is summarized as a Draw Balance. When the payee starts earning commission, the Draw can be recovered (depending on the rules defined).

Split

A rule that is used when only a percent of the value of the deal should be given to a specific sales rep. For example, 50% of the deal should go to Bob and 50% should go to Sally. It is best if these rules can be genericized so they do not need to be added ad-hoc. For example, if you can have the standard "Salesperson" field and add a "Split to Salesperson" field. A rule can then be built in advance to handle the event that the additional "Split to Salesperson" field is populated.

Total Payout

The total amount of paid commissions for a recipient over a set period.