CASE STUDY
Supplement store with multi-tier commissions
Online sales and multi-tier commissions run in one system: as soon as an order is placed, each tier's bonus is calculated from the referral relationship. Promoters get their own live statement page instead of waiting for a monthly report.
RESULTS
What this project changed
- -85%
- Commission reconciliation hours
- Store × commission
- Combined in one system
The problem
In a business driven by promoters, the biggest risk is that sales go well while the books become impossible to untangle. Products sold on a shopping platform while commissions were calculated in a separate spreadsheet, and matching the two took manual work.
- Orders and referral relationships lived in different systems, so settlement each month meant merging two sets of data by hand.
- Promoters could not see results as they happened and had to wait for the monthly report, which broke their momentum.
- Clawbacks from returns and cancellations are the easiest thing to get wrong by hand and the most likely to cause a dispute.
What we did
We made commissions part of the order flow rather than a calculation done afterwards.
- When an order is placed, the referral source and the tier relationship at that moment are recorded as the basis for the calculation.
- Multi-tier commission rules are held in the system, and each tier's bonus is calculated and updated with the order status.
- Returns and cancellations reverse the matching commission automatically, with no manual tracing.
- Promoters log in to see their own orders, bonuses and settlement status, updated as it happens.
Results
Reconciliation moved from a month-end push to something already done as the month goes.
- Hours spent reconciling commissions fell by about 85%.
- The store and the commission scheme run in one system, so order and bonus data need no manual stitching.
- Promoters can check their own figures at any time, which cuts back-and-forth questions and disputes.
CONSTRAINTS
Constraints
The conditions that were fixed from the start. The trade-offs behind the approach only make sense once you know them.
Commissions can only be worked out cleanly if the referral relationship at the moment of the order is kept in full.
- Referral relationships change over time, but an order that has been placed must be calculated on the relationship at that time, never recalculated against the current tiers.
- Returns and cancellations are inevitable, so commissions have to reverse automatically rather than be clawed back by hand afterwards.
- Bonuses are promoters' income, so every one has to be traceable to the order it came from.
- Promoters see only their own orders and bonuses and cannot look at anyone else's data.
HOW IT WORKS
Technology and integrations
What the system connects to, how the data moves and why those choices were made — written so that no technical background is needed.
The point is to make commissions part of the order flow rather than a calculation run afterwards.
- When an order is placed, the referral source and the tier relationship at that moment are written onto the order, so every later calculation has a basis.
- Multi-tier rules are held in the system and bonuses update with the order status, and a return or cancellation reverses the matching amount automatically.
- Promoters log in to the same calculated result, so they do not wait for a monthly report and ask fewer questions.