Overview
Tern supports Agent Commission Tracking - which allows you to view the status of your bookings (set by your agency admin) across all trips in Tern.
IMPORTANT NOTE: this article focuses on commission tracking for Agents within an agency on Tern.
Marking activities as 'Booked'
You'll notice a 'Commission' tab on your top nav
If you haven't marked any of your activities before as 'booked', you may see a blank table at first. Tern only surfaces activities to your agency admin after you mark them as 'booked'. That way you can still add expected commission to activities as you propose them to your clients, but it won't create noise by tracking things that you never end up booking.
Marking activities as 'Booked'
Add your expected commission details. If your standard commission rate set by your agency does not look accurate you can change your commission type to Custom and edit the expected split directly.
To mark an activity as Booked, go to the Booking & Pricing tab. In the Booking details section, you'll see an Accreditation dropdown where you can select the correct IATA or credential for the agency you want this booking logged under. Your default agency will be pre-selected, but if you belong to multiple agencies, make sure to choose the right one before marking as booked. Learn more about managing your default agency.
When you select an accreditation, the Commission Type dropdown filters to show only commission types from that accreditation's agency. If you belong to multiple agencies, you will only see the relevant types for the agency you are working under for that booking. You can do this for trip activities, trip packages, and insurance.
Once your accreditation and booking details are set, click the "Mark as Booked" button in the top right of the Booking details section to confirm. You won't be able to edit the accreditation during this step, so make sure it's set correctly beforehand.
Once you mark an activity as 'booked' you'll see a 'Received Commission' section under expected commission. As your agency administrator logs payments as received, or marks your payouts as 'paid', you'll see those statuses change here. You can also see statuses across all of your bookings on your commission tracking dashboard (more on that below!).
Tip: You can have Tern act automatically when commission comes in. Set up an automation with the Commission Received trigger - for example, create a task for yourself the day commission is first recorded on a booking. See Automation in Tern.
Commission Dashboard: Bookings Tab
Now that we've marked a few activities as booked, you'll start to see them appear in your Commission Tracking Dashboard. This includes bookings across every trip you are planning in Tern.
Commission Statuses
Commission statuses help you understand whether or not a supplier has paid your agency for a booking yet. The agency payouts tab will help track your agency's payouts to you.
Upcoming: nothing received yet, and the expected commission date hasn't passed or isn't set.
Overdue: nothing received yet, and the expected commission date has passed.
Partial: some received, and the booking is still expecting more.
Received: received, and nothing more expected.
Canceled or Non-commissionable: not owed.
Commission Dashboard: Agency Payouts Tab
If your agency admin hasn't started logging your payments in Tern yet, you may notice this table is empty at first.
As they start to log payments, you'll see them populate here.
Payment Statuses
Payment statuses help you track payments expected from your agency for specific bookings.
Ready: your agency admin has logged a commission payment from a supplier, and your percentage is eligible to be paid out to you, but has not been marked as 'paid' yet.
On Hold: your agency admin has logged a commission payment from a supplier, but it is not eligible for payout to you yet. For example: many agencies hold on paying out commission until a specific date before or after travel, to avoid having to take the money back in cases of cancellations / refunds.
Paid: your agency admin has marked your commission for this booking as 'paid'. This typically means it can be expected in your next agency payment. Note: Payment statuses follow your agency's payout dates, not the booking status. If a booking is cancelled after a commission payment was logged, its payout can still show as Ready or On Hold. See "A cancelled booking still shows a payout in my Agency Payouts tab. Why?" below.
Exporting data
In addition to using Tern to track commission status and agency payouts, you can export this data at any time.
FAQ
Q: I'm seeing a drop-down with multiple options to choose from on my Commission Dashboard - what does that mean?
A: You'll see this toggle if you've marked activities as 'booked' through multiple agencies in Tern, or if you've marked activities as 'booked' through at least one agency, AND marked other activities as 'booked' not through your agency. If that's the case you can toggle between agency bookings / bookings not made through your agency. Depending on which option you select, you may notice different functionality.
This article focuses on commission tracking for Agents (so it would match what you see when you are toggled to your agency)
If you are looking for more information about tracking payments for bookings NOT through your agency, start here: Advisor Commission Tracking
Q: I'm noticing that a booking has already been marked as booked, but it still isn't showing up in the reports. How can I make sure this is showing correctly?
Reports update within seconds of any change in Tern. If a booked booking still isn't showing, see Why a Booking Isn't Showing in Reports or the Commission Dashboard for what to check and when to contact support at [email protected].
Q: A booked booking still isn't showing on my Commission dashboard?
Still not seeing it? Check your dashboard filters. By default the Commission dashboard shows all of your bookings, but if you've applied a Booking date (or Start date / End date / Expected commission date) range, any booking outside that range is hidden. Clear the date filters or widen the range so it includes the booking's date.
Q: A cancelled trip is still showing as Overdue in commissions. How do I fix it?
The Overdue status comes from each booking, not from the trip’s status. A booking is Overdue when its expected commission date has passed and no payment has been logged. Marking the trip as Cancelled in your dashboard doesn’t change its bookings. They stay Overdue and still count toward your sales totals.
For each booking on the cancelled trip:
Open the trip activity and go to the Booking & Pricing tab.
Click Edit booking and change the status to Canceled. This removes the booking from your sales totals.
If no commission will be paid, go to the Commission section, click the ⋯ menu, and select Mark as not commissionable. This sets expected commission to zero and clears the Overdue status.
The booking stays on the trip for your records.
Note: Mark as not commissionable only changes commission. A non-commissionable booking still counts toward your sales totals until the booking is cancelled. It also doesn’t remove a commission payment your agency admin has already logged, or your payout from it. If the booking shows a payout in your Agency Payouts tab, see the next question.
Q: A cancelled booking still shows a payout in my Agency Payouts tab. Why?
Cancelling a booking doesn't remove commission that was already logged on it. A payout is based on its eligible-for-payout date, not on whether the booking is booked or cancelled. So if your agency admin logged or imported a commission payment before the booking was cancelled, the payout stays in your Agency Payouts tab as Ready, On Hold, or Paid.
You can't remove this payout yourself. Contact your agency owner or admin:
If no commission was actually received, ask them to delete the commission payment on the booking. That removes the payout from your Agency Payouts tab.
If the supplier paid commission despite the cancellation, for example on a non-refundable booking, the payout may be correct. Your admin can confirm.