Explore Calculation Display Settings

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe calculation display settings.
  
• Identify the difference between API names and display names.
  
• Update display names and explain why they’re updated.
  

Calculated Field Settings

Salesforce Spiff is a leading sales compensation software that automates and simplifies the process of calculating and managing sales commissions. When working with calculations (calculated fields) in Salesforce Spiff, the Settings sidebar gives you many options to change the display of data. The sidebar is divided into three sections: Calculated Field, Format, and Visibility. In this module, we explore the settings that impact the display of calculations, convert currency, handle null value errors, and change visibility settings. These settings are only available for calculations, and not connector fields from your synced or imported data.

The Calculated Field section includes the Display Name and, on datasheet fields, Object.

Update Display Names

The Display Name is how the calculation name appears in rep statements and reports. There are two types of names across Salesforce Spiff (and the data in it).

• API names are the official names of any field. These names are unique and can't contain spaces or certain special characters. Some data sources allow for spaces, so make sure you change API names with spaces to a name compatible with Salesforce Spiff during integration. Otherwise, you’ll find it difficult to use those fields.
  
• Display names can be different from the API name, so they’re often used to make long or confusing API names more easily understood. For example, the API name TotalARRClosedInYearOverQuota can have the display name Total ARR Over Quota (Closed In Year).
  

When you create a calculation, its API name matches the display name. Display names are updated (made different from the API name) for two reasons.

• Readability: If the field will be displayed on the statement, the display name is updated to look less like code and more professional. And it makes those long API names easier to read.
  
• Simplicity: If each rule has a Quota Relief field on the statement, but each plan or rule has a different quota relief calculation, Salesforce Spiff requires unique API names, such as QuotaRelief_AE, QuotaReliev_Q2, and QuotaRelief_SalesManager. You can update each to display as simply Quota Relief. But this can make it confusing to know which Quota Relief you're adding to the statement. So you add display names that repeat as you go, or use a friendly name like X Quota Relief to find the calculation you want easier. Then, update the display name after you add it to the statement.
  

If the API name is updated, the display name is synced and gets updated, assuming they're still the same. If the display name is changed and doesn't match the API name, any subsequent changes to the API name won't be pushed to the display name.

Click the Display Name field on the right sidebar to change the display name. There are no limitations to the types of characters you can use, including emoji. The only thing you can’t do is leave the Display Name field blank. If you want the display name to be mostly blank, use a hyphen (-). Add spaces for better readability.

The Object dropdown, only visible for datasheet fields, lists an object name. This lets you know that this calculation only applies to records from the specified object.

Format Settings

In the Format section of the Settings sidebar, you’ll find several options: Display Format, Precision, Convert to Currency, Convert to another Currency, and Apply Default Value.

The Display Format picklist gives you control over how the output of the calculation displays on the rep statement. If you want a calculation to appear on the rep statement, select a display format: You can choose between currency, date, number, or percent. Precision represents the number of decimal points displayed given the format of the variable.

Now that you understand the Calculated Field and Format settings, find out how to convert currency in Spiff in the next unit.