Alliance features a comprehensive set of Sales Management capabilities: Contact Management, Sales Analysis and Commission Accounting. Alliance seamlessly unifies these functions with Alliance order processing and billing.

This unification promotes an easy flow from the first customer contact to profit analysis and payment of commissions.

Please click the following links to jump to the information quickly or simply scroll down.

Alliance Commission Accounting

Alliance Commission Accounting uses a company's own rules to link an unlimited number of salespersons to specific customer locations for regular and split commissions . Commissions are further definable by product lines, effectivity dates, minimum and step-level margin and dollar volume levels, and for specific price lists, prices , and quantity breaks.

Alliance Commission Accounting automatically assigns commission rates by salesperson to each new sales order. One-time changes can be made on any sales order, including orders and products that normally do not receive a commission, and for salespersons not normally assigned to this account, or to deduct for salespersons who did not participate in a sale.

After Alliance generates the sales invoices, pending commissions are processed to produce a maintainable file of commissions to be paid. This file is suitable for custom enhancement to Accounts Payable, Payroll, or other payment system of your choice.

Alliance Commission Accounting applies a series of commission rate rules to sales orders and credit memos in order to generate a file of earned commissions.

You develop commission rate rules by salesperson and specific customer locations , for regular and split commissions. Expand on these basic commission rules with more detail about commission rates by product lines, effectivity dates, minimum and step -level margin and dollar volume levels. Specific commissions can also be assigned to individual price lists, prices, and quantity breaks.

While commission rules cannot cover all situations, Alliance permits you to override the calculations with one-time changes on any sales order, including orders and products that normally do not receive a commission.

Even after Alliance invoices have been generated, you can still review and change the earned commissions for miscellaneous adjustments before using the Pending Commissions File in payment applications, such as Accounts Payable or Payroll.

Back to the Top

Alliance Contact Management

Alliance Contact Management, or Light Telemarketing, enables you to enter key information about prospects and records contact with them. Alliance automatically prepares a follow-up action or next contact date.

In addition, like all other Alliance applications, Alliance Contact Management allows transfer to other key Alliance functions, such as Sales Order Entry.

Contact Management provides the sales and marketing department with capabilities to perform the following:

• Tracking customer and prospect contacts and follow-up actions
• Inquiry into customer and prospect call activity
• Reports on a follow-up or "tickler" basis

Use these functions to manage telemarketing sales efforts, customer service follow -ups, and as a supplement to the Credit Notes/Action file.

Back to the Top

Call and Activity Inquiries

The Telemarketing Transactions Inquiry gives you access to all of the telemarketing actions in the Alliance database by keying on follow-up code, original transaction code, date range, or user ID. This powerful inquiry displays contacts, promises made , and pending follow-up actions.

Back to the Top

Customer and Salesperson Assignment Rules

Alliance enables you to define commission rules among customers, salespersons, and product lines within each division. A particular division-customer-product line commission can be split among an unlimited number of salespersons by giving each salesperson a percentage rate to apply to a portion of the order line value.

For example, three salespersons can share in the commission for one customer as follows:

• The first salesperson receives a commission rate of 2% against 100% of the value of all products for just one product line. This person may be a technical sales representative .
• The second salesperson receives a commission rate of 6% against 100% of all product lines on each order. This person might be the primary sales representative for the account.
• The third salesperson receives a commission rate of 6%, but applied against only 50% of the value of all the product lines. This could be used to establish the sales manager's override of 3% on each order.

Commission rules have several variables that promote tailoring commission accounting to specific needs:

• Setting rules for each specific Customer Master Record representing a ship-to location. This feature allows the assignment of different salespersons in different regions for the same consolidated customer account. Vary the rules by product line to highlight new products or downplay products that are being dropped.
• Using an effectivity start and end dates on each rule to highlight promotional periods, product introductions, and end-of-period deadlines.
• Setting up rules by division to vary the commission by remote warehouse, line of business, or domestic versus export business.

Alliance provides enormous flexibility in defining commission accounting rules.

Back to the Top

Customer-Oriented Reports and Inquiries

Alliance Sales Analysis has many reports and inquiries based on customer information . Additional reports can be created using the Sales Analysis files, the Customer Master File, the User-Defined File, and the following System Reference file (SR10) tables :

• Customer category
• Customer class
• Territory
• Region

Alliance automatically includes all three levels of customer sales, ship-to, bill -to, and consolidated accounts, in the detailed Sales Journal File.

Back to the Top

Database Periods

Alliance Sales Analysis stores summary sales file information for an unlimited number of periods. The number of periods kept on-line should be based on company needs and available disk storage. Each sales analysis inquiry and report will run on selection of a current period which sets the basis for the year-to-date, same-period-last-year , and last-year-to-date comparatives that are a part of every inquiry and report.

This definition of current period is beneficial. You can perform an on-line inquiry any time for any period. If a report for February, 1999 is requested, the following information is listed: the current month to date, compared to the year-to-date, February , 1998, and 1998-to-date (January and February, 1998).

This simple and easy method of viewing sales information for any set of comparative periods is valuable when checking on specific events, or when preparing for a sales call. For example, you could check on all products sold to a given customer, or in a specified geography, for the past several years before making a sales call.

Back to the Top

The Detail Lines

Each Alliance Sales Analysis inquiry has a series of detail lines based on the selection criteria. For example, the detail lines in SA63 Sales by Customer, show the individual line items purchased by the customer.

Each detail line shows the sales dollars and gross margin percentage for four comparative periods:

• Current period
• Current year-to-date
• Same period last year
• Last year-to-date through the same period

Sales dollars are the invoiced dollar amount; gross margin is the extended sales amount less the extended cost amount (based on the inventory cost record for that item and warehouse).

The gross margin percentage is a percentage of sales, and is calculated as Sales Dollars minus Cost Dollars, the sum of which is divided by Sales Dollars.

(Sales dollars - Cost dollars) / (Sales dollars)

Back to the Top

Earned Commissions

Alliance calculates commissions and builds an Earned Commissions File by looking at all invoices in a date range. The result is a file of earned commissions, which can be adjusted directly through the Earned Commission Maintenance program.

Adjustments can be made to the total commission dollars, the commission rate, and the split percentage on an order-invoice-item basis.

Inquiries can also be made into earned commissions, with look-ups keyed to salesperson , customer, item, order and invoice numbers.

The ultimate use of the Earned Commission File is up to the Alliance user.

You can export this file to the existing Payroll system, write a program to create a batch of vouchers to the Alliance Accounts Payable system, or write a program to match these pending commissions to Alliance Accounts Receivable payments. Alliance provides a new Earned Commissions File each time commissions are calculated.

Back to the Top

Entering and Tracking Contacts and Actions

Alliance provides a Telemarketing entry and inquiry screen to record customer and prospect contact activity. You can find a list of contacts by sales representative , days since customer last received an invoice, or customer type code.

During a phone call with a customer or prospect, you can open a number of windows to record the following types or levels of activity:

• Action taken by an action code: the automatic follow-up action suggested by Alliance is displayed. You can set a date for that follow-up yourself, or allow the system to use a default date.
• Extended notes about conversation or action.
• A transfer to Alliance Telemarketing Transactions Inquiry Screen, where users can check on other actions by follow-up code, original transaction code, date range , or user ID.
• Transfer to Sales Order Entry, sales order look-up, invoice inquiry, customer credit profile inquiry, or any other defined selection.

By following a user-defined table of follow-up action codes for each original telemarketing action, Alliance can prepare follow-up actions, saving valuable time and improving the productivity of telemarketing and customer service representatives.

Back to the Top

Establishing Commission Rules

Alliance uses a three-tier commission rule structure, giving you the ability to override commissions for a specific order, and modify the generated commissions for specific adjustments prior to using that file in a payment processing program.


Back to the Top

Flow of Information

Alliance maintains three levels of sales files for use in preparing reports, inquiries , and analyses:

• An Order Bookings File, with entries for each order line taken, changed, or cancelled

• A Sales Journal File, with entries for each invoiced sales order line

• A series of summarized sales analysis files, based on the Sales Journal File

Back to the Top

IM17 Inquiry of Item Forecast History

This inquiry enables you to select a current year, and to display the past 36 months of demand for the forecast-as item. You can view the demand in units or dollars, and decide whether to see the total demand, sales demand, warehouse transfer demand, bookings , or adjustment activity for the item.

The inquiry also compares the 12 periods of demand for the current year to the two forecasts, by period. Two item forecasts can be maintained in this inquiry, and special adjustments can be made to the demand, by supplying a reason code.

This inquiry is useful for comparing actual demand to forecast, adjusting the forecast , or adjusting demand. For example, you may wish to adjust the forecast history of umbrella sales of during a particularly rainy or dry season before making a new forecast for the future.

This report combines information from the Sales by Customer and Item Inquiry (SA63 ) and Sales by Division/Territory/Product Class/Line (SA60), sorted by customer and sub-sorted by product class and line, with detail information by item.

Inquiry of Sales by Forecast Item includes the unit shipments for the month-to -date, year-to-date, prior year month-to-date, and prior year-to-date. This report is useful for analyzing product sales by customer, especially before a sales call on that account, and to gauge the success of a sales campaign.

Back to the Top

Interaction with Sales Order Types

Alliance processes every sales order or credit memo according to its order type . The order type is a code that represents the settings for a series of flags in the Alliance System Options file. Three of these flags control how Alliance updates the Sales Management database.

One flag controls whether the order writes a booking record. For example, certain price adjustments may not need to update the Bookings File. On the other hand, seasonal product forecasts may need to be based on the Bookings File.

A second flag controls whether the order writes a Sales Journal record by controlling whether or not Alliance invoices the order. Orders among warehouses do not usually generate an invoice and receivable record.

A third flag controls whether the Shipment History File is updated. The Shipment History File is the source for preparing forecasts based on shipments, and for forecasts based on the forecast item number.

Seasonal businesses may not use the Shipment History File, as their business plans may be driven more by booking dates than by invoice dates.

Using various combinations of the order type flags, you can design the right set of order types for your business transactions.

Back to the Top

Item-Oriented Reports and Inquiries

Alliance Sales Analysis has several reports and inquiries based on item information . Additional reports can be created using the Sales Analysis Files, Item Master File , Item User-Defined File, and the following System Reference File (SR10) tables:

• Product line
• Item family
• Item type
• Commodity code
• Price category code

Alternate item numbers are also available:

• Forecast-as item number in the Item Master File
• Generic item number in the Item Master File

Back to the Top

Minimum Product Line Margin and Dollar Attainment Rules

Alliance promotes further modification of the commission rules by salesperson and by product line, introducing a series of minimum amounts needed to achieve a series of commission rates. Set the minimums in terms of gross dollars invoiced or gross margin percentages; Alliance uses the information in a system-wide Data Area parameter for overall implementation.

For example, a salesperson can have a series of minimum gross invoice dollar steps for one product line as follows:

• A $500 to $4,999 invoice for that product line would earn a 2% commission.
• A $5,000 to $9,999 invoice would earn a 3% commission.
• An invoice of $10,000 or more would earn a 4% commission.

Alliance applies these rules as overrides to the customer and salesperson rules defined earlier.

Back to the Top

Miscellaneous Charges

Another way to customize the Alliance Sales Analysis database is to decide whether miscellaneous charges (e.g., freight, handling) are part of the database.

Miscellaneous charges, entered through a pull-down window in Sales Order Entry and Shipping, can be part of the overall sales analysis database or can be excluded , depending on a system-wide Data Area parameter.

Back to the Top

More Information Window

Each Alliance Sales Analysis inquiry has a More Information Window for every detail line in the inquiry, and for the total line.

The More Window is always accessed by the line option M.

The More Window displays additional information for the four comparative periods :

• Sales dollars
• Cost dollars
• Gross profit dollars (sales minus cost)
• Gross margin percentage (sales minus cost, divided by sales)
• Unit quantity sold
• Number of sales order lines invoiced

Back to the Top

In Alliance Sales Order Entry, new orders can be entered and existing orders changed . Credit memos and other adjustments can be made as well. The system records each transaction in the Alliance Booking File as an audit trail of sales order and credit activity.

The Booking File shows the time and date of the entry, as well as references to the order and order line, and the positive (order) or negative (credit) quantity of the transaction. This File is the source of the forecast time series when preparing item forecasts based on bookings, as compared to forecasts based on invoiced sales .

Reviewing the Booking File shows how an order was taken and subsequently changed . It also tracks:

• Manual price overrides, including prices taken from order forms
• Original requested shipping dates versus actual shipping dates
• Product substitutions

Back to the Top

Order Level Overrides

When there are exceptions to the commission rules stated above, Alliance enables you to manually set the commission rate and split percentage on an order-by-order basis for orders not invoiced. You can add, change, or delete a salesperson, commission rate, and split percentage for the entire order, or on an order-line-by-order-line basis.

Alliance's powerful commission rate-setting enables you to account for special circumstances, without defining a lot of one-time rules.

Back to the Top

Other Reports and Inquiries

Alliance Sales Analysis has several reports and inquiries based on selected views other than customer and item. Additional reports and inquiries can be created using the following System Reference (SR10) files:

• Salesman file
• Territory file
• Region file
• State file
• County file

Back to the Top

SA60 Inquiry of Sales by Territory and Region

This inquiry allows selection of a current period and division, and displays all the sales for each territory and region in that division for all comparative periods . Position the inquiry to start at any territory and region.

Inquiry of Sales by Territory and Region is useful for gaining overall perspective on sales by geography or organizational unit.

Back to the Top

SA61 Inquiry of Sales by Division, Territory, and Product Class/Line

This inquiry lets you select a current period, division, and one or more territories . Sales are displayed by product class and product line, for all of the comparative periods. A total for all the classes/lines in a given division and territory is displayed as well.

This inquiry is useful when a summary of product sales and profitability by product lines in different geography or sales territories is required.

Back to the Top

SA62 Inquiry of Sales by Salesperson and Customer

Select a current period, division, and salesperson, see all sales for all customers of that salesperson for all comparative periods. Position the inquiry to begin the customer list with any customer.

This inquiry is useful for analyzing activity within the accounts that belong to the salesperson assigned to each account in the Customer Master File, or as overridden during order entry.

Back to the Top

SA63 Inquiry of Sales by Customer

This inquiry displays a current period and customer, and all the items sold to that customer in the period and comparative periods. Position the display to begin at a specific item number.

This inquiry is useful for quickly reviewing how much product was shipped to a particular customer in a particular period; use this inquiry before making a sales call to an account, or to find which items a customer has not purchased recently when organizing a telemarketing program.

Back to the Top

SA63 Sales by Customer and Item

As described above in the customer section, this report details all item sales for a specific customer.

SA64 Inquiry of Sales by Salesperson

Select a current period and division, to see all sales for each salesperson for all the comparative periods. Position the inquiry to start with any salesperson.

This inquiry is useful for gaining a fast graphic comparison of each salesperson 's activity for the month and year, and for seeing relative differences in volume and margin among the different salespersons.

Back to the Top

SA65 Inquiry of Sales by Forecast Item

This inquiry allows you to select a current period and forecast by item number , and to see sales by the forecast item numbers for all the comparative periods. You can position the inquiry to start at any forecast-as item number, and the inquiry can be restricted to a single warehouse.

This inquiry is useful for summarizing sales by a parent or super item number, such as a basic style number covering a range of individual sizes and colors.

Back to the Top

SA66 Inquiry of Sales by Item

This inquiry allows you to select a current period and item number, and to display item sales across all warehouses for all of the comparative periods. You can position the inquiry to start at any item number. This inquiry is useful when a fast run-down is needed on sales for a specific item in a specific period.

SA67 Inquiry of Sales by State and County

This inquiry enables users to select a current period, division, and state, to see all sales for each county in that state for all comparative periods. Position the inquiry to start at any county within a state.

This inquiry is useful for reviewing sales activity and profitability on a county by county basis within a state.

Back to the Top

SA68 Inquiry of Sales by Product Class and Line

This inquiry enables you to select a current period and product class, and to display all the sales of each product line and item type within that product class for all of the comparative periods. The inquiry can start at any product line.

This inquiry is useful for summarizing sales to determine how well a group of products is selling.

Back to the Top

Sales Analysis

Alliance Sales Analysis provides up-to-date sales reports and inquiries that compare current month and year-to-date results against the same month and year-to-date figures from the prior year. Sales inquiries and reports are available in many formats, including :

• Item number, product line and class
• Customer state, type and class
• Four geographic breakdowns: division, territory, state, and county
• Salesperson

Each invoice run updates the Alliance Sales Analysis database automatically, without any special or lengthy processing. Alliance bases all reports and inquiries on entry of the current period, so month-end results can be seen at any time for any past period. An unlimited number of years of data is maintained.

Changes to customer, product, salesperson, geographic, or cost elements can be re-inserted into past history summaries.

Alliance Sales Analysis contains a booking file to audit all new orders, order changes, and order cancellations. The booking file can be a source of sales reporting for businesses where time elapses between order receipt and order shipment, for example , with seasonal items such as fans, heaters, sporting goods, etc.

Back to the Top

Sales Analysis Inquiries

All Alliance Sales Analysis inquiries have a similar layout and presentation of information:

• Handling of data periods
• Database selection criteria
• Totals for all information selected
• Detail lines of sales dollars and gross margins
• A More Data window on request for each individual selection

Back to the Top

Sales Journal of Invoices

Alliance generates an entry into the Sales Journal File for each sales order line on every invoice. Alliance generates the Sales Journal File automatically during every invoicing run, using this file as the source file for the summarized sales analysis files. No special processing is required to produce either the Sales Journal File or the summary files. These files are available throughout the month, and they include the latest processed invoices.

Some of the detailed reports available from the Sales Journal File include:

• Month-to-date invoice register
• Cost of sales report
• Sales tax report

Back to the Top

SAP 121 Report of Sales by Salesperson and Product Line

A breakdown of sales by product line for each sales person appears on the SAP121 Report of Sales by Salesperson and Product Line. You can request the information for a range of salespersons.

Two sets of comparative information appear on this report. One set is based on invoiced sales, and shows current year-to-date and prior year-to-date sales dollars and percentage change from year to year. The other set is based on order bookings , with same year and prior year comparisons useful in measuring the productivity of a salesperson with product line detail.

Back to the Top

SAP 122 Report of Sales by Salesperson and Product Class

The information in the SAP122 Report of Sales by Salesperson and Product Class is the same as the Report of Sales by Salesperson and Product Line (SAP121), but at a higher level of aggregation. It shows sales by product class by salesperson , rather than by the more detailed product lines.

Back to the Top

SAP 124 Sales Quantity by Item by Month

This report lists sales by month for the total year, and in a horizontal spreadsheet -style display for every item in the database. It is useful for viewing sales trends on a monthly basis, and for a quick comparison to suggested purchase quantity reports.

Back to the Top

SAP 660 Report of YTD Sales by Division

The SAP660 Report of YTD Sales by Division lists sales by territory and order type within a division. It provides month-to-date, year-to-date, prior month-to-date, and prior year-to-date results of sales dollars, units and gross margins.

Use this report's sort sequence of territory and order type to identify trends such as rush orders versus standard orders, returns and credits versus original shipments , and quotes given versus orders shipped.

Back to the Top

SAP 661 Report of YTD Sales by Territory

Similar in format to the YTD Sales by Division (SAP660), this report breaks down sales by product class and product line by territory. The SAP661 Report of YTD Sales by Territory is useful to further refine territory trends in sales and margins into product class and line detail.

Back to the Top

SAP 662 Report of YTD Sales by Salesperson by Customer

This report is a printed version of the information displayed in Sales Inquiry by Salesperson and Customer (SA62). The report lists customers for a range of salespersons .

As with the other YTD reports, SAP662 Report of YTD Sales by Salesperson by Customer shows the monthly and yearly comparative information for sales dollars, units and gross margins.

Back to the Top

SAP663 YTD Sales by Customer by Item

As described in the customer section, this report lists item sales by customer for the current and prior month and year, including dollar sales, unit sales, and gross margin percentage.

Back to the Top

SAP 663 Report of Sales by Customer

This report prints the trend for sales to each customer for the month-to-date, year -to-date, same month-to-date in the prior year, and the prior year-to-date. The data for each comparative period is in dollars sold, units shipped, and gross margin percentage achieved.

One use for this report is to select the range of customer numbers that includes all the ship-to locations for one national account. Analysis of this report may reveal more efficient shipping routes or carriers.

Back to the Top

SAP 680 Report of the Top Fifty Companies

This report identifies your company's top fifty customers, ranked by sales volume and gross profit percentage. The report produces both rankings, and shows current and prior year dollar sales and gross margin percentage on those sales for each ranking .

Use this report on a monthly basis to monitor the activity of your largest and most profitable customers.

Back to the Top

SAP685 Report of Top 50 Items

This report identifies the top fifty sales items in terms of year-to-date gross profitability.

The item list includes unit sales, dollar sales, gross profit dollars and percentage , inventory turns, and year-to-date gross profitability, which is the basis for the report's ranking.

SAP685 Report of Top 50 Items is useful in reviewing margins on the highest margin products. You can compare it to a product report of the highest sales volume products to see if margins and volumes are synchronized to maximize overall profits.

Back to the Top

Selection Criteria

Each Alliance Sales Analysis report and inquiry has its own selection criteria in addition to the current period. For example, the SA60 Sales Inquiry by Territory and Region has the following selection criteria:

• Division
• Territory
• Date

If only one division is requested, all territories and regions for that division are listed. Enter both division and territory to see all regions for that division /territory. If a division has many territories, the selection criteria allows you to position the inquiry to begin at a specific territory, and to show only those that follow in alphanumeric sequence.

In SA63 Sales By Customer, you can display the detail of items bought by each customer . In addition to the date selection, you can select an individual customer by positioning the inquiry to begin with a specific item number's sales, instead of showing all items.

Back to the Top

Specific Commission Rates for Items on Price Lists

When broad-based rules are not easily defined, or when there are exceptions to the rules, Alliance enables you to specify an exact commission rate for a specific item number and quantity break within an Alliance price list.

There are several advantages to using this approach:

• The commission is precise according to each item.
• The commission rate can vary by the sales item quantity break point.
• The commission applies to all salespersons on that account.
• The effectivity start/end dates for the commission will match the start/end dates of the item's price on the price list.
• The price list itself is a reusable object that you can insert into price group matrices that could cover one or many customers.
• Different specific commission rates can be applied to the same item when that item appears on different price lists, an easy way to establish different commission rates for different types of sales, such as list price, at dealer price, at master distribution price, etc.

Alliance treats the commission rates found on price lists as overrides to the commission rules.

Back to the Top

Summary

Alliance provides a series of rules to define commissions among divisions, product lines, customers, and salespersons. Establish minimum invoice amounts and gross margins for each commission rate, and you can override the commission rules with specific commissions on item price lists.

When there are exceptions to the rules make the exception on an order or line level basis. Adjustments can be made to the Earned Commissions File whenever necessary . Alliance provides files for commission payment processing alternatives.

Back to the Top

Telemarketing Reports

Alliance makes the following activity reports available to sales and service representatives :

• Required follow-up activities by sales rep, follow-up action, date range, for customers or prospects
• Telemarketing activities report by sales rep, transaction code, date, and customer or prospect
• Telemarketing actions by customer or prospect

Past activities can be purged from the Alliance database at any time, based on the action and date range.

Back to the Top

The Total Line

Each Alliance Sales Analysis inquiry has a total line at the beginning of the inquiry display for your convenience. The total of the detail lines follows. The total line displays a fast recap of all the activity without having to page through the inquiry to reach the end.

For example, in SA63 Sales by Customer, the total line is the total of all the items sold to the selected customer. In SA60 Sales by Division/Territory, the total line is the total of all territories and regions for that division in that period .

Back to the Top