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 fill out their expected commission (if they weren't doing so already!), mark the activity as 'booked', and they'll be all set.
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.
The agent's split will be pre-filled based on the amount you set on their profile.
They are able to edit any of this information themselves - and you'll see it as a reference point - but you have the final say on what the actual commission received + commission split is for each activity.
Once your agent has booked the activity, they'll mark it as 'booked'
First, they'll click 'marked as booked' under Booking Details
Next, they'll review the details, adjust the booking date (if needed), and select 'mark as booked'.
The agent's work is now done! When the commission comes in from the supplier and you log a payment / mark it as paid, they'll see the status come through on their side.
Setting Default Commission Splits
To make commission reconciliation efficient, we recommend setting a default agency commission percentage, and customizing this per-agent as needed.
Setting a default agency commission split
To set a default percentage, go to Settings, select Agency Details, and click 'Edit Details'
Next, add your default agent commission split and 'save'. Don't worry - you can further customize per agent.
Customizing commission splits per agent
Go to 'Team', and select 'edit details' for the agent you'd like to adjust a default split for
Update their split, and save. Don't worry - you can always adjust commission per activity as needed!
Adding Supplier Statements
First, go to 'Commission' on your top nav
Click "Add Statement" in the top right to log your first supplier payment
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. More on those statuses + definitions later in the article!
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
Review Agent Payouts
Click on 'Agent Payouts'
You'll see one row for each supplier payment you logged
Filter down to the payouts you need
Status filters are your friend here!
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'
If you are trying to use this data to pay your agents, use the 'Ready' filter, and then export all the payout data. You can then upload this data into whatever accounting software you use to run payroll (like Quickbooks).
After you have paid your agents, click 'mark paid' to mark every payout in your search results 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.
