The April 30th Telarus Tuesday call brought Telarus CFO, Zane Christensen, and Galen Hoxie, Telarus Partner Compensation Analyst, to talk about anticiPAY, the new Telarus Commission Advance program and commission tips and tricks.
First, Zane took a moment to remind us about the call he Telarus VP of technology, Michael Brown, presented a few months ago. They walked through the new user interface they were working on for your commission reports and data. We are excited to update you that we expect this new look and feel will be rolled out next week.
If you joined that call a couple of months back, hopefully you had a chance to see how the new look and feel will make it easier for you to navigate and consume our Commission Back Office, and therefore your commission data. Just remember – the Commission Back Office will look different in about a week.
If you need any assistance navigating the new look and feel, please call your Commissions or your Partner Support contact and they can jump on the line with you quickly and help you out.
anticiPAY
Most of you have probably noticed that in your commission back office under the Financial Dashboard on the left side menu of the screen we have added some information and a link regarding our Commission Advance Program, anticiPAY. Owning and managing your own business is already stressful enough, but sometimes you need quick access to more capital to handle an emergency, meet a financial need, or grow your business. Or maybe you need funds for personal reasons. Yet in spite of the hard work and sweat you have spent growing your very successful business, it can be tough to get banks to lend you the capital you need. From our perspective, you already have an existing, and growing, residual commission stream with Telarus. And we are making it easy for you to draw on that powerful commission stream when you need it.
When you look at the left side menu of the screen in your commission back office, under anticiPAY you should see the words “your preapproved borrowing power”, and a minimum and maximum number. The minimum and maximum numbers represent a range within which you are guaranteed to qualify for a loan if you choose to do so. You can borrow as little as $1,000. It can of course be less than the minimum number. This range is intended to let you know at a glance that you already are guaranteed to qualify for an amount as high as within this range.
We have already looked at your commission payment history and commission stream and have already prequalified you to borrow as much as you need up to at least the minimum amount displayed in that section, and it could be up to as much as the maximum amount in that same display. All you need to do is give us a quick call or send us an email and let us know what you need to borrow.
Just below the anticiPAY information in that left side menu bar, you should also see a link for information regarding your Agent Rank in our Reward program. Here you can find your interest rate if you decide to take out an Advance under anticiPAY.
Under anticiPAY we have developed standard payback terms over a three-year period – interest accrues during the first year, but no payments are required. Then we will have you make payments using your existing commission stream for the next two years using a two-year amortization/payback table.
But the beauty of anticiPAY is in its simplicity and flexibility. If you decide you want to start paying back your advance right away, no problem. If you want to make larger payments over a shorter timeframe, we can accommodate that too. Even if you need the cash for a shorter period and then pay it all off after just a few months, we support that as well. No closing costs, no up-front mountains of paperwork, no prepayment penalties.
This program is Built for You.
Commission Tips and Tricks
Have you ever wondered how you can make life easier with regard to commissions? Galen and I have some Tips and Tricks on utilizing our Commission Back Office. The Telarus commission system is a robust system for processing your commission payments, and the beauty of having our own home-grown system is that we have control over its design, functionality and improvement. But there is so much information contained in there, that it can be daunting or even overwhelming to know how to navigate it and get to the specific information you need.
Galen is probably my most seasoned veteran when it comes to commission issues. On our call today we had Zane and Galen do a question and answer session. When an Agent first starts with Telarus, they get hit with a lot of information; from how Telarus can support them and how to access the tools, to how to get an order into the system. It can take a few months for an Agent to see their first dollars flow through Telarus. Then all of a sudden, they need to know about the Telarus Commission System and how to see the details of their payment.
Q – Let’s start with that – how does an Agent go about accessing their Telarus Commission information?
A – First you would want to login to your agent back office. If you do not yet have a login please reach out to your Partner Support Manager and they will assist you with this process. Once logged into the agent back office you will land on the Home screen. To the left is a menu where there are Reports which expanded, takes you to the composite commission report. This is going to provide you with the dollars that have been paid to you for any month in your history with Telarus.
Q – How can they see the detailed information underlying a given month’s commission payment?
A – To access the details you will go to the month you wish to review. The dollar amount is a hyperlink that will open your details all commission report where you can begin reviewing specific orders and the history of payments. You can see it right here:
Q – What about Orders that haven’t installed or started paying yet? Is there anywhere they can see what is pending?
A – We have added the Pending Payment tab to the commission section to make it easy for you to review what sales are entered with Telarus but have not yet started to pay. If you review this tab and know that a sale is installed, please reach out to the commission team so that we can get your money to you as soon as possible.
Q – Sometimes an order will suddenly stop paying, or may change and increase or decrease. Where can and Agent see which orders have experienced a change in their monthly commission amount
A – This question has two answers: the first place to view started and stopped accounts is the Variance tab. This will show you any accounts that have started and stopped since the previous month and can act as a quick look to what is changing in your report. The second place to view the smaller variances in dollar amounts is found on the details all tab and looking at the six-month view. We have tried to build a report that makes it easy for you to compare the payment data to previous periods so you can see consistencies or variances.
Q – When an Agent looks at the Details all tab, they can see information on a Customer by Customer basis. But when a Customer has more than one product under that record, the data shows in an aggregated, blended form. How can an Agent see the underlying Customer Product data?
A – The By customer report will show each individual line item that Telarus has been paid on by the supplier. We try to import as much information into the system as possible and although there are some improvements coming to the display of this information you can at least see the individual amounts. This allows you to review the customer and see that there is a component paying for say both the loop and the port when a specific supplier is paying a different rate on each item.
Q – What if an Agent wants to be able to organize or sort their Order or Customer data in a different way than what our back office does? Or what if they use a third-party commission system and need to import our data into that system to combine it with other data?
A – We have an export tab that features a few different ways to export the data. The common reports being the CSV, and the RPM exports. Once exported into excel the data can be manipulated however necessary.
Q – We often hear from Agents that we don’t have as much data in our system (product or site level information) as we should. What is being done by Telarus to address this?
A – This is one of the nice features of a home-grown commission system. We are aware that not all the information is displayed at this time, but the data is currently being imported. Our Development team is working to make sure that the exports will pull all of the information that is imported for each supplier.
Q – Where can I see what Telarus gets paid for Gross Commissions from Suppliers?
A – At this time there is a commission payment Table found in the Quick links section of the commission report. This tab will allow you to view and compare commissions with any of the suppliers we have in our back office and know the rate that you will be paid. This tool generates the percentage by calculating your specific agent contracted rate against the Telarus contracted rate with the supplier giving you real time percentages of what you will be paid off of the MRC.
Q – What can an agent do if they don’t believe a commission is being paid correctly? Or they wonder why a particular account hasn’t started paying yet?
A – We make it easy to open a commission dispute from the agent back office by adding a link on the composite commission report. This needs to be populated with a few fields such as reason for the issue: commission issue, contact: this will be who the emails go to within your organization so make sure you select the correct person. If you have documentation that helps the dispute you can upload at this time and name each file attached. Please provide a quick note of what you are looking for and include the customer name and Telarus order ID. Once submitted when a response is provided through the ticket system you will receive an email and can reply directly to the email string.
This is a quick way to open a dispute or question in the moment that you are looking at your Commission Data. But don’t be afraid to shoot us an email or pick up the phone and call your Commissions Contact. What we want most is to ensure that you are getting your Commissions as quickly as possible, and if you think there is a problem, we want to get on it right away to get it resolved and get your $ into your hands.
Thanks to Zane and Galen for helping us understand how to navigate commissions data in the Telarus Back Office Commission system. If you have questions, please reach out to your commissions contact or partner support manager.
