Overview
Agency Commission Reconciliation allows you to view all your agents' bookings, log and reconcile supplier statements, track unclaimed bookings, track upcoming and overdue supplier commissions, and export data to pay your agents.
This article focuses on commission tracking and reconciliation for Agency Admins.
If you are an agent looking to track commission and payout statuses (set by your agency admin), start here: Agents: Commission Tracking
If you're an advisor looking to track commission outside of an agency, start here: Advisor Commission Tracking
Agent Booking Experience
Your agents are already using Tern to plan their trips. Now, all they need to do is mark activities as "booked" for them to appear in your reconciliation dashboard.
Filling out expected commission
As a part of the trip planning process, your agent will fill out their expected commission per activity / insurance / trip package. Learn more about how to set commission rates per agent here.
Once your agent has booked the activity, they'll mark it as 'booked'
Booked activities, packages, and insurance will all show up in your commission dashboard.
Configuring commission settings & rules
Before learning more about commission reconciliation, we recommend reviewing our Commission Settings Article to ensure you have the right rules set up for your agency.
Adding Supplier Statements
First, go to 'Commission' on your top nav
Click "Add Statement" in the top right to log a supplier statement.
Start by entering statement details
When you get a new payment from a supplier, log that in Tern.
Statement name can be anything you want. Use whatever identification you prefer to track supplier statements.
Type can be ACH, Wire, Check, Mobile Payment, Credit Card, Cash, or Other
Sender is the name of the supplier (or sometimes Host Agency) who sent the payment
Total amount should be the entire payment - accounting for all bookings you plan to reconcile.
Reconciling Supplier Statements
"Reconciling" a supplier statement means that you are trying to match all of the bookings that statement is for, in order to track that commission has been received and to pay your agents. It also often involves flagging "unclaimed" bookings - meaning you can't find some of the bookings the supplier is paying you for, and therefore cannot pay the agent who made that booking.
First, start adding bookings that correspond to the supplier statement
You'll be taken to the statement page, where you'll see all Upcoming, Overdue, and Partially Received bookings your agents have made. Any bookings that have already been fully paid by the supplier, or have been canceled, will be excluded.
Use the filters on the right to narrow down to the bookings you'd like to associate with this statement.
So as an example - if your supplier is Perla Tourist, and one of the line items included in the statement is a $40 commission payment with a confirmation number of "sdfg34", you'd want to add the first booking below. Tip - if you're unsure whether it's the correct booking to add, you can first click into the row to view more details.
To add this booking to the supplier statement, log a payment
You'll see activity details and the expected commission fields that your agent filled out. You'll then fill out the supplier payment details:
Amount received: the commission amount the supplier paid you for this activity
Currency: the currency the commission payment from the supplier is in (which can differ from the currency of the activity itself
Date received: when the supplier paid you (we default to 'today', but you can adjust)
Agent split: what percentage of the commission your agent should get. We default to whatever you have set on their profile, but you can adjust it per-activity.
Eligible for payout: when you plan to pay your agent for this commission. We assume you are ready to pay them when you log the supplier payment and set the default to 'today', but you can move it to a future date as needed.
Payout status: if you have already paid your agent this commission, you can mark it as paid from here. Otherwise you'll do this later in bulk - more on that below!
If you are expecting additional payments from this supplier on the same booking, click that checkbox before saving. That way we'll mark the status of this booking as "partially received" instead of "received" - meaning you'll see it available to reconcile to future supplier statements.
Logging multiple supplier payments
We know that suppliers don't always pay you all the commission for an activity/insurance/trip package at once. If you need to log a second payment, you can do so any time using the + icon
As you log multiple payments and associate them with supplier statements, you'll see which statement each log corresponds to -
Keep adding bookings until you can't find any that match the supplier statement
So in this example - we've logged 3 supplier payments and associated those bookings to this statement. That accounts for $450 out of the $600 total we have received from this supplier.
Create & Track Unclaimed Bookings
Tern will automatically assume any remaining amount is "unclaimed" until you reconcile it to a booking. However if the statement you have gotten from a supplier includes line items for bookings you'd like to track separately as "unclaimed", you can log them each individually.
First, click "Add Unclaimed"
Next, create your Unclaimed Booking
Don't worry if you can't fill out every field - just add the information you have!
Now that we've added 2 unclaimed bookings, this statement is fully accounted for
As a next step, you can flag these specific unclaimed bookings to your agents.
Remove unclaimed bookings once they have been "claimed"
If your agent recognizes a booking as theirs, they should make sure to add that booking in Tern (or mark it as "booked" / fill out the necessary details for you to locate it). You'll follow the exact same process to reconcile those new bookings to this statement. Once an unclaimed booking has been accounted for, remove it from the statement:
Track & export unclaimed bookings across all statements
The "Unclaimed" tab shows you unclaimed bookings across all statements. You can filter down to the bookings you need to reference or export them when working with your agents to resolve them.
Track & Close Statements
One you have fully accounted for the supplier statement, you can mark it as "closed". Note: you can do this even if there are unclaimed bookings remaining. We know that agents may not add their bookings within your time requirements, or there could be extra supplier money not tracked as a booking. Tern does not support tracking amounts outside of bookings (eg adjustments/bonuses), but plans to in the future!
If there is an "overage", you'll need to resolve it before closing your statement
An overage means that you've either reconciled too much, or have left unclaimed bookings that have been resolved. Either edit the supplier statement amount, or fix your reconciled / unclaimed bookings before closing.
Use the Statements table to track any statements that are still open
Tracking Booking Status
If you're looking to track a specific booking - perhaps to hunt down overdue commission from suppliers - go to your Bookings tab. You can use the filters on the right to narrow down to the bookings you are looking for.
Status filter - definitions
As a reminder, you'll only see activities, insurance, and trip packages that have been marked as "booked" by your agents.
Upcoming: 'expected commission date' (as set by your agent) is in the future, and you have not logged a supplier payment yet.
Overdue: 'expected commission date' (as set by your agent) is in the past, and you have not logged a supplier payment yet.
Partial: you have logged at least one supplier payment on the booking, and have also checked a box saying you expect further payments for this booking in the future.
Received: you have logged at least one supplier payment on the booking, and aren't expecting further payments.
Canceled: your agent has marked this activity as 'canceled'.
Exporting booking data
You can also export the raw booking data any time you need it!
Filter down to the data you need, and then click 'export' in the top right
You'll get a CSV with the same data in the table
Paying Your Agents
To pay your agents, first go to the "Due" tab. You'll see any agents that have adjustments or bookings with commission that is ready for payout.
You can click into each row to see the full details on the payout. You can optionally mark the statement as "paid" directly from here.
Or, you can pay your agents in bulk by returning to the main table and selecting "Pay Agents".
Name your statement, adjust the "date paid" if necessary, and confirm.
You'll be redirected to the "Payout Statements" tab with the statement name and date applied, so you only see statements for that pay period. Select "Export" in the top right to get a CSV of the statements.
You'll also see a link to each statement - if you send it to your agents, they'll be able to click through to see the statement on their side. Agents can only access statements for their own payouts.
Review Individual Agent Payouts
If you're looking to track down a specific agent payout - perhaps to answer a question they have about a specific booking - go to your Agent Payouts tab. You can use the filters on the right to narrow down to the bookings you are looking for.
Filter down to the payouts you need
Ready: payments that have not been marked 'paid', and do not have an 'eligible for payout' date set to the future.
On hold: payments that have not been marked 'paid', but DO have an 'eligible for payout' date set to the future.
Paid: payments you have already marked as 'paid'
FAQ
I'm seeing a drop-down with multiple options to choose from on my Commission Dashboard all of a sudden - what does that mean?
If you're noticing this as an agency admin, you may have marked some activities as 'booked' before you set up your agency in Tern. You'll notice these activities show up under 'My Independent Bookings'. To learn more about commission tracking for advisors, check out this article.
