Partner statements that nobody quite trusts
Your consultancy works with several introducers: an accountant who refers clients, a trade association, a couple of self-employed agents. Each has an agreed share of the commission on the contracts they introduced, some upfront, some over the life of the contract.
Each month, someone in finance goes through supplier statements, picks out the lines relating to each partner's clients, applies their percentage and emails them a figure. Partners ask how it was worked out. When a clawback hits a contract they introduced, you are not sure whether their share was adjusted last time.
Why partner payments are hard to get right
Partner splits sit on top of commission that is already complicated.
- Each partner has their own terms, sometimes different per supplier or product.
- The link between a contract and the partner who introduced it is kept in a spreadsheet or in memory.
- Splits should follow what was actually received, not what was expected.
- Clawbacks and adjustments need to flow through to partners' shares.
- Partners want statements they can check, not just a total.
Disputes, delays and damaged relationships
Introducers are a valuable source of business, and paying them late or wrongly damages the relationship quickly. A partner who cannot see how their payment was calculated starts to wonder whether they are being paid fairly.
Errors in either direction cost the consultancy: overpayments are hard to recover, and underpayments, when found, are embarrassing. The monthly calculation itself takes finance time that grows with every new partner.
The records also matter when a partnership ends. An introducer who stops referring may still be owed residual commission for years on contracts they brought in, and working out what is still due, contract by contract, from old spreadsheets is exactly the kind of job that leads to a disagreement.
Partner splits calculated from matched commission
We build partner split calculations on top of your commission ledger.
- Each partner has a record with their agreed terms: percentage or fixed amounts, per supplier or product, upfront or residual, and how clawbacks are handled.
- Each contract records the partner who introduced it, if any.
- When supplier commission is matched to contracts, the partner's share of each line is calculated from their terms.
- Clawbacks and adjustments on contracts they introduced flow through to their share, according to their terms.
- At month end, each partner gets a statement listing clients, contracts, amounts received and their share, with a total.
- Payments are prepared for your approval and can be sent to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage as bills for payment through their APIs.
| Step | Spreadsheet | Split calculations |
|---|---|---|
| Which contracts are theirs | Remembered or looked up | Recorded on each contract |
| Share calculated | By hand from statements | From matched commission lines |
| Clawbacks | Sometimes applied | Flow through per agreement |
| Partner statement | A total in an email | Line-by-line statement |
| Payment | Set up manually | Prepared for approval |
The calculations apply the terms you record. What those agreements mean, and any dispute about them, are for you and your advisers.
Partners who can see their numbers
At month end, finance reviews the partner statements rather than building them. Each partner receives a statement showing exactly which contracts paid and what their share was. When a clawback affects one of their contracts, it appears on their statement with the original payment it relates to.
Questions from partners drop, because the answers are on the statement. Adding a new partner means recording their terms, not adding columns to a spreadsheet.
You can also see which partners bring in which kind of business: which introduce clients that renew, which introduce many small sites, and what each relationship is worth over the life of its contracts. That helps you decide where to spend time building referral relationships.
Are partner payments a monthly headache?
- Partner shares are worked out by hand from supplier statements.
- Partners ask how their payment was calculated.
- Clawbacks are not consistently passed through.
- The link between contracts and partners is in a spreadsheet.
- Paying partners takes longer each month as you grow.