PROJECT CASE STUDY
Seven commission tiers, calculated from the original order.
Unified rules for orders, refunds, sales attribution, and commission estimates, reducing the need to maintain parallel calculations.
KEY NUMBERS
Problem
Orders, performance, and commission are maintained separately. Dates and ownership are interpreted again at month-end, with refunds manually added back into the calculation.
Approach
Calculate from paid orders using explicit transfer dates, customer ownership, and refund periods. Use deterministic rules for performance and commission estimates.
What changed
Individual, team, and head-office views use the same order data.
Retail distributor
Sales reporting · Net-performance targets · Commission estimates
Earlier work by the Ordiva founding team, delivered under Story Light Studio. The three feature stories cover the same operations system.
Executive Summary
The distributor needs to reconcile orders, sales performance, and commission. We made ownership, payment dates, and refund treatment explicit so salespeople, managers, and head office can read performance directly from orders within their authorized scope. A seven-tier schedule calculates estimates that salespeople can check themselves.
The same distributor needs personal views for salespeople, team views for managers, and an overall view for head office. A customer’s payment date may differ from the date staff record it, and refunds change net performance.
The Problem
Manual month-end summaries leave room for disagreement: who owns the sale, which month gets a late-entered payment, and whether a refund has been deducted. Commission also depends on cumulative sales and tier rules, making estimates difficult to check independently.
Before
Orders, performance, and commission are maintained separately. Dates and ownership are interpreted again at month-end, with refunds manually added back into the calculation.
The implemented workflow
Calculate from paid orders using explicit transfer dates, customer ownership, and refund periods. Use deterministic rules for performance and commission estimates.
The Vision
Make each figure explainable: which order produced it, who receives attribution, which month it belongs to, and how a refund changes net performance. A shared basis lets the team investigate differences at month-end.
The Solution
Calculate net performance and commission estimates from orders
Only paid orders count toward performance. The actual transfer date determines the month, and customer ownership determines attribution. Refunds are deducted in their refund month; targets use net performance. Cumulative sales and seven progressive tiers determine commission estimates, with deterministic code calculating prices, commission, and stock.
Included in the build
- Performance calculated from paid orders
- Explicit payment-date and refund-period rules
- Role-scoped performance and target charts
- Cumulative tiers and commission estimate views
How the System Works
How salespeople and managers review the same sale
- 01
Agree what counts as a sale
Only paid orders contribute to performance, attributed to the customer’s responsible salesperson. The actual transfer date determines the month, so late data entry does not move the sale into another period.
- 02
Calculate from orders, without a duplicate performance table
Performance is calculated directly from order data, with visibility aligned to order permissions. Salespeople, managers, and head office see their authorized scope.
- 03
Use one basis for refunds and targets
Refunds are deducted in the refund month. Monthly targets are compared with net performance after refunds rather than gross sales alone.
- 04
Make estimates understandable and their limits explicit
A seven-tier progressive schedule uses cumulative sales to calculate commission estimates for staff to view. Deterministic code performs the calculation. Automated month-end settlement belongs to a later phase.
What Makes This System Different
Performance reads from orders
The system calculates from one data source, with visibility following order permissions. It removes the need for a second independently maintained performance table.
Dates refer to business events
Transfer dates determine the sales month; refund dates determine the deduction month. Late entry follows an explicit rule.
Estimates can be checked against stated rules
Seven tiers define the calculation, and staff can see their tier and estimate. Each amount can be checked against its order and rules. Settlement and commission estimates are defined separately.
Measurable Results
The following are functional and verification results from the project record.
Commission estimate tiers implemented
Cumulative performance determines the tier and estimated amount. This build provides estimates; automated monthly settlement belongs to a later phase.
Paid-order source for performance
Personal, team, and head-office views follow order permissions, using explicit payment-date and refund-period rules.
Project-wide behaviour defects corrected
The project record reports six business-behaviour fixes in one internal review, including discount input, owner retention, and Beijing-time effective dates. This is a project-wide review result, not a zero-defect claim for this module.
Figure definitions and verification notes
Figures come from sections A3, A4, A6, A7, A16, and A17. Seven tiers are commission rules; two timing rules assign sales by actual transfer date and refunds by refund month; six fixes refer to the project-wide internal review.
Business Impact
Salespeople: check their own tier and estimate
The personal view supplies current performance, cumulative tier, and estimated commission, giving staff and managers a specific basis for discussing an order.
Managers: compare targets with net performance
Monthly targets and performance after refunds can be reviewed together, including during the month rather than only at closing.
Head office: focus closing work on exceptions
Shared data and date rules reduce duplicate table maintenance. Month-end effort and correction rates still need live measurement, and actual commission payouts are outside this batch.
Ongoing operating metrics
- Total hours spent preparing and reconciling monthly performance
- Corrections caused by dates, ownership, or refunds
- Commission enquiries still requiring manual explanation
Why This Matters
Commission and performance affect how employees understand allocation rules. When calculations depend on verbal explanations, dates, ownership, and refunds become repeated month-end discussions. Traceable orders give those conversations a consistent basis.
The Takeaway
Unify order sources, ownership, and dates before calculating performance and commission. The team gains explainable estimates and shared rules for the next phase of automated settlement.
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