If you are not familiar with Zapier, it’s a very popular workflow application. Zapier makes it possible for different cloud applications to “talk to one another” and automate processing with no coding required.
For example, using Zapier, you could have Gmail send a notification each time a new opportunity is created in SalesForce. Or you could have PayPal automatically send payment each time you create an invoice in QuickBooks Online. Hundreds of cloud applications offer support for Zapier – from project management to e-commerce.
Zapier + Sales Commissions
Now, how does that help with sales commissions? To calculate commissions, Sales Cookie needs up-to-date sale transaction data (ex: orders, invoices, deals, opportunities, contracts, etc.). And once Sales Cookie has calculated accurate commissions, you need to pay your employees or vendors. This diagram explains key interactions:
Using our Zapier integration, you can:
- Automatically create sales transactions within Sales Cookie. For example, you could create a Zap which auto-creates a sales transaction when a new invoice is created in your accounting / CRM system. This way, you’re always ready to calculate sales commissions.
- Automatically process rewards when released within Sales Cookie. For example, you could create a Zap which auto-submits payment requests to your payroll / vendor management system. This way, you can fully automate payment of sales commissions.
Key Components
The Sales Cookie Zapier application offers two entry points to deliver the above scenarios:
- An action to create (or update) sales transactions within Sales Cookie
- A trigger to notify you that rewards have been released within Sales Cookie
If your goal is to add sales transactions within sales cookie, create a Zap which reacts to events in your accounting or CRM system, and calls our “Create Transaction” action. If your goal is to process payment of commissions, create a Zap which listens to our “Rewards Released” trigger, and then calls an action in your payment system.
Example #1 – Create Sales Transactions When SFDC Opportunities Are Created
In this example, our goal is to automatically create a sales transaction in Sales Cookie each time an opportunity is created in SFDC.
We selected SalesForce’s “New Opportunity” trigger. Next, we specified that Zapier should call into Sales Cookie to create a sales transaction. This requires mapping fields. For example, we mapped Sales Cookie’s “Unique ID” to SFDC’s “Opportunity ID”.
That’s it – every time an opportunity is created in SalesForce, we will see a new sales transaction in Sales Cookie. Total configuration time: under 5 minutes.
Note: for correctness, you should repeat the same process for opportunity updates.
Example #2 – Create QuickBooks Payments When Releasing Rewards
In this example, our goal is to automatically create payment records within QuickBooks when commission rewards are released within Sales Cookie.
We selected Sales Cookie’s “Rewards Released” trigger. Next, we specified that Zapier should create a payment record for each commission payout.
However, an additional in-between step is required. Indeed, we need to know which QuickBooks customer (vendor) to pay (and auto-create a new QuickBooks customer if we can’t find one).
Therefore, we must include a search step to find a QuickBooks customer matching the beneficiary specified by the Sales Cookie trigger. Don’t worry about figuring out everything – Zapier is smart enough to suggest adding the search step as soon as you connect Sales Cookie to QuickBooks!
Below is our QuickBooks customer search step in more detail. As you can see, the configuration is very simple. We decided to search QuickBooks customers by email address (not first / last name). We used the beneficiary email address provided by Sales Cookie (for each payout) to perform the search.
With our search in place, we can finally select QuickBook’s “Create Payment” action. We just need to map Sales Cookie’s payout fields to QuickBooks payment record fields. For example, we mapped Sales Cookie’s “Reward Value” field to QuickBook’s “Total Amount” field.
That’s it – every time rewards are released in Sales Cookie, we will see new payment records in QuickBooks. Total configuration time: about 10 minutes.
In Conclusion
Sales Cookie’s integration with Zapier makes it super-easy to calculate commissions using sales data from countless CRM and accounting systems. It also makes it possible to automate payment of commissions using your favorite payroll or vendor management system. With support for Zapier, you really have no excuse left NOT to automate your sales incentive program!
Sales Commissions Explained 