Analyzing The Sales Amount Calculation

Getting the “Sales Amount” Calculation Right

Setting up a new calculated field in cooperation with end users

We recently had an interesting request to update a sales amount calculation on a particular salesperson commission cube. The thinking behind this was that customer early payment discounts were not being reflected in a system-generated”Sales Amount” field. The current field did not have any additional logic behind it.

Our mission was to try and reflect reality. We needed to create a calculated field for “Sales Amount” that would more accurately reflect the discounts that the customer was receiving.

While prompt payment discounts are important to offer, it’s equally important that we reflect the reality when looking at order sales over time. While some discounts may seem minor, the fact is that if it’s in place, our actual cash received is less. That updated sales amount calculation should be reflected in commissions.

We worked together with the customer to analyze all the terms codes in place today. For example, if the order was placed under terms “2% 15: Net 60”, that meant we needed to reflect the 2% discount as long as the customer paid within 15 days. We created logic for each of the terms set up in the accounting system. Then we applied the logic to the order-based cubes and immediately saw the new sales amount generated. Now we could look at the cost amount to calculate an appropriate margin.

It’s the little things! Sometimes it is just the a little logic, some technical skills and good communication that are required in order to make a process meet a customer’s needs.

We are always happy to build reporting solutions that help make life easier for our customers and more transparent for the people to are consuming the data.

Let us know if there’s anything similar you’d like help with!