Explore Accelerator Functions in Salesforce Spiff
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- List accelerator functions in Salesforce Spiff.
- Explain the use of mamount and mpercent functions.
- Explain the use of tier_payout and range_lookup functions.
- Create and edit range tables in Salesforce Spiff.
Meet Accelerator Functions
Salesforce Spiff is a leading sales compensation software that automates and simplifies the process of calculating and managing sales commissions. Sales accelerators are a key part of commission plans. The more attainment a rep achieves, the more commission they’re paid, depending on which tier the attainment falls in. And Salesforce Spiff makes it easy to implement accelerators into your commission plans. You get these cool accelerator functions out of the box.
- Mpercent
- Mamount
- Tier_payout
- Range_lookup
But which one do you use to build your commission plans? That depends on how you want to handle accelerator rates. In this Quick Look, find out how and when you can use these functions.
Mpercent and Mamount
Some companies commission on a marginal or tax bracket basis and commission revenue amounts at different rates. Let’s understand this with an example. For simplicity, say that income up to $50,000 is taxed at a 5% rate; $50,000 to $100,000 is taxed at a 6% rate; and $100,000+ is taxed at a 7% rate. If someone earns $102,000 in a year, does that whole amount get taxed at a 7% rate? No! Only the amount within each range is taxed at that corresponding rate. This means $50,000 is taxed at 5%, the next $50,000 at 6%, and only $2,000 is taxed at the 7% rate. If you calculate commissions similarly, the mpercent and mamount functions are the functions you’re looking for.
These functions apply or return the right commission rate to the right amounts as defined by the table that is referenced within them. Here's a sample rate table in Spiff.
So if a rep has closed $220,000 in sales this month, you use this function: mamount(MonthlySales,EnterpriseRateTable).
The function performs the calculation (4% * 200000 + 6% * 20000 + 8% * 0 + 10% * 0) / 220000 to return the effective rate of 4.181818. Note that you’d usually create a calculation that captures the sum of sales rather than hard code the total sales amount as done here.
Tier_payout and Range_lookup
Some companies have plan components where a single commission rate is applied to all of the deals the rep has closed. They track the highest tier/rate the rep reaches and award the higher rate to all sales within the time period. Let’s consider an example using the same rate table from the previous section.
If a rep has again closed $220,000 in sales this month, you’d use this tier_payout function:tier_payout(220000,EnterpriseRateTable)
The function feeds the amount into the table to find the matching range, and then outputs the associated rate, which is 6%. In another calculation, you can then multiply the 6% against $220,000 to get the commission owed to the rep. The range_lookup function is functionally equivalent. So tier_payout and range_lookup apply a single commission rate to all the deals, while mpercent and mamount apply different rates to different ranges.
Create and Edit Range Tables
As explained in the context of marginal and tier payout rules, range tables are common features of many incentive compensation or commission plans. In Spiff, there are several ways to create accelerators. The easiest is to build a range table and then reference it in an accelerator function. Here’s how you create a range table in Spiff Designer.
- Navigate to Plans in Designer.
- Click
.
- Select New Range Table.
- Name the table. Keep it simple, but descriptive.
- Double click into the first cell of the table and enter the name of the first tier, or range, for your compensation plan. Typically, this is simply named
Tier 1. - Enter the lower and upper bounds of each tier. We recommend leaving the first lower bound empty. Reference the sample rate table shown in an earlier section.
- Enter the payout rate, or amount, for each tier.
- Once done, click Save.
Here’s a pro tip if you have the same ranges for different roles in your compensation plan, or different types of product that reps can sell. You can make a range table dynamic and usable for multiple payout rules and plans by creating different return value columns. Let’s say you have four different products. They all have the same ranges, but receive different commission rates. Create a column for each product, and then create a calculation that determines the appropriate product for the deal for which commission is being calculated. Spiff will then dynamically choose the right column.
Here’s the sample syntax for such a scenario: tier_payout(DealAmount, ProductRateTable, true, Product).
If you create the range table under plans, it will live outside any specific plan. You can also create a range table by hovering over a plan name and selecting the same option, and it will reside beneath the plan. This is similar to the folder structure on your computer. You can always drag and drop a table to change its location.
To rename your table, hover over your new range table and click 
, or double-click the table name. Your table has a Name and a Display Name. The name must start with a letter and contain only letters, numbers, and underscores. This name is referenced in the calculations to use the table. The Display Name is what you see in the Library panel and can contain spaces and special characters.
To begin editing the table, simply click in any column. In edit mode, you can add or delete columns by clicking the dropdown on a column header. Just remember to save your changes when you’re done.
To edit the column header name, double-click the header itself. You can’t rename/delete the first three columns as they're necessary for the functionality of this table type.
You can use previously created worksheet calculations and mathematical operations within a range table. Just make sure to spell the formula name exactly, including capitalization.
Now that you’re familiar with the accelerator functions, you can use them in your payout rules!