[reprint from 8/26/2008]
Sales and Commissions dollars in the MRSware system are represented by an Invoice in the Invoice Entry screen (and an Order in the Web interface). Each Invoice has a Sales Rep assigned on it. Each Customer (Company who has purchased from one of the lines represented by the sales agency) is present in the Customer Listing screen. Each Customer has a Sales Rep assigned to it.
At invoice entry time, the sales rep as seen on the Customer Listing screen is filled in on the Order or Invoice by default. The data entry user entering the invoice has the ability to override the sales rep assignment to credit the individual sale and commission entry to a different sales rep. This is typically seen when more than one sales rep calls on the same customer.
Over the course of time, sales rep assignment to a customer will change. As they do, the new sales rep is assigned in the Customer Listing screen. When new invoices come in for that customer, the new sales rep is assigned on the invoice.
The above two scenarios create a situation where at any given time a sale may be looked at from the perspective of the sales rep as seen on the Customer, or from the perspective of the sales rep as seen on the Invoice. There are some cases where you want to look at it one way, and some cases to look at it the other. Here are a couple of examples:
1) I want to see who was paid the commissions for these sales. Sales Rep on Invoice is what you want to look at for this information -- it will show you who the individual sales were credited to, regardless of who the customer is currently assigned to or how many time that assignment has changed. Another way to look at this is as your "historically accurate sales and commission information" since it will not change unless the original invoice is changed. This is an important measure for tax and audit purposes.
2) I want to see how the sales for my current customer base has changed since I took over the accounts. Here we would look at Sales Rep on Customer to see a picture of all of the customers currently assigned to the rep, regardless of who they were previously assigned to. This is an important way for the rep and management to see how a customer or territory has changed over a period of time and measure individual sales rep performance.
Where to find each measurement:
Sales Rep on Customer
Sales reports based on invoice date, where the field is labeled "Sales Rep on Customer" as a parameter
all Data Analysis cubes
Sales Rep in Invoice
Commission reports based on payment date, which will show "Sales Rep on Invoice" as the parameter
all Data Analysis cubes
As noted above, each of the Data Analysis cube has the ability to see both sales and commissions from either the sales rep on invoice or the sales rep on customer perspectives. Data Analysis is also the only place where you can nest the two together to look at trends in account assignment, changes over time, and breakdown the accounts with multiple sales reps assigned to them.
