The Pitfalls of Using Spreadsheets for Incentive Compensation
Compensation Strategy: Increase Sales and Profits Through Automation
Management often recognizes that incentive compensation is one of the most powerful levers they can use to drive corporate strategy. Yet most companies struggle to take full advantage of incentive compensation strategy potential due to the lack of proper tools, expertise and visibility. Instead, they are bogged down in Excel spreadsheets and Word documents trying to build effective plans.
This white paper details the costs and ptifalls of spreadsheet based incentive compensation, including the misalignment between plans and corporate strategy, delays in payment and reporting, unclear plan documentation, inaccurate or incomplete calculations, and too much over head. Paying on these ineffective plans often leads to cost exposures, overpayment, and other unintended consequences.
The answer is to automate with a solution specifically for plan design, payment calculation, reporting and feedback. Small and medium-sized businesses in particular have much to gain by automating the design and payout of incentive compensation plans. Using the right tool helps bolster efficiency, accuracy and consistency, and more importantly can result in higher and more profitable sales.