Recently we implemented a big chunk of new functionality, called the Deal Manager. It allows companies to manage contracts, invoices, and payments within CommissionCrowd, and for sales agent members, it’s the same idea: you don’t have to leave the platform to sign your contract or to send invoices and receive payments. Plus everything is stored, managed, and tracked in one place.

This article is a guide to the Deal Manager for sales agents. Click here to see the Deal Manager guide for companies.

For agents, the three steps to the Deal Manager are: connecting, signing a contract, and getting paid.

When the company approves one of your applications, you get the chance to connect to the opportunity, which means you can start working on it. This is when you’ll sign a contract.

Fig.1. Connect to an opportunity when the company has approved your application

Fig.2. Enter the legal details that you want to be part of the contract with the company

Enter your details as you want them to appear on your contract. These should be your legal name, which could be a company name if you operate as a company.

Fig.3. Stripe verification process for payments

When you’ve entered your contract details and click the next button, you might have to go through the Stripe verification process. Stripe is the service we use for online payments, and you’ll be directed away from CommissionCrowd to a step-by-step verification process. Once complete, you’ll be taken back to CommissionCrowd to continue setting up your bank account and sign the contract.

Fig.4. Add your bank account details

The bank account you enter here defines where you want your money to go when companies pay your invoice.

Fig.5. Once you have a bank account set up, you can connect to the opportunity

When the bank account is added, you can connect to the opportunity. Note that when you connect to other opportunities, you can add another bank account if you want to use a different one.

Fig.6. Read the contract

Fig.7. Sign it when you're ready

Read the document carefully, and sign the contract by clicking the blue button. After you do this, the contract document will appear in the Contract tab for the opportunity (see below).

NOTE: When the contract has been signed by both the company and the agent, a confirmation email will go to both. This will come from eSignatures.io, which is the service we use for electronic signing.

Fig.8. Connected!

Now you’re connected to the opportunity, and it will now appear in your Opportunities section.

Fig.9. Download the contract any time from your opportunity screen

Fig.10. Contract details in settings

Your contract details will be stored for the next time, and you can edit them any time by opening up the settings tool and scrolling down to the section for contract details.

To get paid for your work on an opportunity, you start by closing a deal. A deal is always based on one of your existing leads. So when you’ve made the sale and everything is confirmed, you go to the relevant lead and click on Close Deal.

Fig.11. Closing a deal

Fig.12. Confirmation screen

When this is done, you’ll go straight to creating your invoice.

Fig.13. Creating your invoice, first step

The first step in creating the invoice is the form shown above, which will be pre-populated, but which you can edit if necessary. The one thing you may have to add here is tax, e.g., VAT, IVA, etc. You can add multiple taxes here if necessary. Make sure you click Apply to make the tax available for the invoice in the next screen.

Then click Next to build the invoice.

Fig.14. Adding items to an invoice

On this screen you can build your invoice by adding multiple items. To add an item, fill in the form, select a tax if applicable, and click on Apply. The commission amount due to you will be calculated automatically.

Fig.15. A finished invoice with one item

In this example, there’s only one item on the invoice, so we can go ahead and click Create Invoice. As it says on the button, it won’t be sent to the company yet, but it will generate a PDF document that you can view.

Fig.16. Downloaded invoice PDF

Fig.17. Editing unsent invoices

If you need to change the invoice before sending it, you can click on Edit in your invoices screen to go through the process again and make changes.

Fig.18. Send an invoice for approval

When you’re happy with the invoice, click on Send for approval. The company will be alerted and they’ll have the option to view, approve, and pay it.

Fig. 19. Sent invoice

Fig. 20. Approved invoice

Fig.21. Paid invoice

The Deal Manager is a big step, but we’re currently working on making it even better. New features to be added soon include:

For sales agents, it’s good to get paid right away for the work you’ve done, so we’ll be making this possible with an instant payments option, so that when your invoice is approved, CommissionCrowd does the waiting, not you.

Even before we implement instant payouts, we want to ensure you don’t have to wait more than a day or two to get paid once the company has made the payment. We’re working on that now.

Companies may want to use bank transfers to pay agents instead of a credit or debit card, so we’re going to make this possible soon.

As of August 10, 2020, 39 countries are covered by this system: Stripe coverage. We have many valued members outwith those countries, so we’re making it a priority to achieve the widest coverage we can.

Click here to see the Deal Manager guide for companies