Payroll day, and the same conversation for the hundredth time
The group grew by acquiring good local IT companies. Each came with its own customers, its own sales culture and its own idea of how a deal should be rewarded: order value here, margin there, a kicker for multi-year contracts somewhere else.
So every month, finance recalculated commission for more than a hundred people, in spreadsheets only two people fully understood. And every month, reps opened their payslip, saw a number they could not trace, and went to ask about it.
“Commission used to be something we explained around payroll. Every month, the same conversations: why this number, why not that one.”
Partner, Nordic IT services group
But a cleaner spreadsheet was never going to fix it
The obvious answer was to tidy the files: one template, one owner, more checks. The group tried. The errors fell, the conversations did not, because the problem was not accuracy. A rep who only sees the result six weeks after the deal has no way to tell a right number from a wrong one, so every number gets questioned.
The plans themselves were fine. They rewarded exactly what each business unit wanted more of. What was broken was the distance between the deal and the reward.
“We got the errors down. The questions did not move at all. That was when we understood the problem was not the numbers.”
Partner, Nordic IT services group
So the group moved the number to the moment the deal closes
Prowi modelled each unit’s plan as it was, on top of the Dynamics 365 opportunities the teams already worked in. No new philosophy, no new CRM. Won in Dynamics now means one thing everywhere: the deal shows up in the rep’s app with its commission attached, calculated by the rule that applies to that unit.
The first thing reps noticed was not the calculation. It was that they could see it. A deal closes on a Tuesday afternoon, the phone buzzes, the month’s total moves.
“Nothing changed in Dynamics. The deal closes the way it always did. The difference is that the rep sees what it pays before the manager does.”
Partner, Nordic IT services group
And once reps could see it, the plan did what it was built to do
The plans were designed to reward the business the group wants: managed services, margin, customers who stay for years. With the number visible, that design reached the people it was meant for. The right solution for the customer and the right deal for the rep stopped being two different conversations.
The payroll conversation disappeared because it had nowhere left to happen. Disagreements, when they come, are about one specific deal and get settled on that deal, weeks before payroll.
“Now the team runs with it themselves, and the discussions are about deals, not payouts.”
Partner, Nordic IT services group
Which leaves finance with one approval and one file
Each period, reps confirm their own statement in the app. Finance approves once, across business units with different plans, and exports a payroll file. No reconciliation, no spreadsheet.
For a group that keeps acquiring, that is the part finance values most: the next company is a new plan in Prowi, not a new spreadsheet.
“When we buy the next company, their plan goes into Prowi. That is the whole integration project for commission.”
Partner, Nordic IT services group
Talk to the customer behind this story
The group asked us to keep its name out of the article, not out of the conversation. If you are evaluating Prowi, we will put you in touch with the partner who runs commission there.
“We are extremely glad to have Prowi on board for the bonus process. It makes our work a lot easier every month.”