Overview
Expected commission rules let Tern calculate the expected commission on a booking so your agents don’t have to enter it by hand.
What Expected Commission Is
The expected commission amount is an estimate of what the supplier will owe on a booking. It powers overdue commission tracking and projected commission reporting. Entering it is optional, unless enforced in agency controls.
Before You Start
You must be an agency owner or admin. Agents cannot change these settings.
Auto-fill applies to new bookings only. It does not update bookings that already exist.
Requiring Agents to Enter Expected Commission
Go to Back Office > Agency Controls.
Under Booking Requirements, select Expected Commission Amount.
Leave it unselected to keep the field optional.
Turning On Auto-Fill
Go to Back Office > Payout Rules.
Select “Fill in the expected commission amount automatically from the supplier’s default rate.”
If this box is unchecked, the default rates you set below still appear to agents as reference information, but Tern will not fill in the field for them.
If this box is checked and a default rate exists for the booking, Tern multiplies the total cost of the booking by that rate and enters the result as the expected commission. The agent can still edit the amount.
Setting a Default Rate by Category
Use this when a category pays a consistent rate. For example, if hotels pay 10% on nearly every booking.
Go to Back Office > Payout Rules.
Enter a default commission percentage for each category you want to cover.
Leave a category blank if its rates vary too widely to be useful.
Setting a Default Rate by Supplier
Use this when a specific supplier pays a consistent rate. For example, if Allianz pays 20% on every booking.
Go to Agency > Supplier Profiles.
Open the supplier.
Enter the supplier’s default commission rate.
If a supplier rate and a category default both exist, the supplier rate is used.
You’ll Know It Worked When
An agent creates a new booking for a supplier or category with a default rate and the Expected Commission field is already filled in. For a $100 Allianz booking with a 20% supplier rate, the field shows $20.
Common Issues
The expected commission field is blank on a new booking.
Check that the auto-fill box is selected in Payout Rules, and that a default rate exists for either the supplier or the booking category. If neither exists, Tern leaves the field blank for the agent to fill in.
The auto-filled amount is wrong for this booking.
The agent can edit the amount directly on the booking. Auto-fill is a starting point, not a lock.
Older bookings didn’t update after I set a default rate.
This is expected. Default rates apply to new bookings only. Edit older bookings by hand if you need the amount on them.