RevOps leaders often inherit a commission management process built by someone else with complexity and risk built in, such as spreadsheets, exceptions, undocumented rules, and manual workarounds. These complexities create risk—inaccurate payouts, time-consuming reconciliations, audit challenges, and a process that few people fully understand or feel confident changing.
When Zapier‘s commission process moved from Finance to RevOps, Katie Huson inherited a process built entirely in Excel. At that time, Katie was the Manager of Revenue Operations. She already had a full plate and was now taking on the end-to-end compensation management process. She needed an easy-to-use tool to streamline the process.
“I looked at the formulas in the Excel sheet and thought, ‘I will break this so quickly.'”
After implementing QuotaPath:
- Zapier moved payroll prep from the 15th to the 5th of the month
- Cut commission processing to about one day per cycle
- Gave every rep real-time visibility into how they’re paid.
- Reduced the number of questions, disputes, and spreadsheet audits
- Made comp plan changes mid-year without breaking history
Excel Was Too Risky to Own
When Zapier’s commission ownership transferred from Finance to RevOps, the existing process was built in Excel. Katie already had a full-time job, so she couldn’t afford this to be a heavy operational lift. After looking at the spreadsheets, Katie said, “That’s not my strength, or my calling in life. I needed something that would make this a lighter lift.”
Alongside the operational challenges of the current commission process, the Excel spreadsheets made it difficult for the reps to understand how or when they were getting paid. As Katie explained it, “It was hard to track down things like, ‘How am I getting paid?’ or ‘Why is this number what it is?’ We knew we needed to increase transparency.”
Zapier needed a system that was easy to run, easy to audit, and easy for reps to understand.
Evaluating Sales Compensation Software: Usability and Handoff-Readiness
Katie first encountered QuotaPath through a live demo at HubSpot’s annual conference, Inbound. That’s when she recognized a solution to the current commission process. “We’re HubSpot users, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is exactly what we’re looking for,'” Katie said.
Although Zapier evaluated a few vendors to understand the landscape, usability quickly became the deciding factor. In fact, Katie’s unique lens for evaluating tools hinged on simplicity.
“One thing that’s really important to me is: if I win the lottery and I’m not coming back tomorrow, could somebody else take this over really easily? QuotaPath felt very drag-and-drop. Very simple to understand.”
Onboarding: Easier Than Expected
Katie anticipated implementation to be more difficult than promised. She explained, “When you buy software, you’re always sold on ‘this will be so easy,’ and it never is. But this actually was.”
QuotaPath’s onboarding team was super hands-on during setup, building out the framework of a lot of Zapier’s plans for Katie, saving her a ton of time. However, “He didn’t just build it and disappear. He walked me through everything, so I knew how to do it going forward,” said Katie.
ROI: Faster Payroll, Fewer Questions, Less Risk
Implementing QuotaPath resulted in several key wins for Zapier.
The most immediate win was getting commissions to payroll faster. “Previously, we were sending comp to payroll by the 15th of the month. Now we’re able to do it by the 5th. That’s huge,” said Katie. Plus, processes that used to be drawn out, such as audits and cutting checks, now took Katie a day to complete.
Increased rep earnings visibility led to a less quantifiable but significant win. “The reps know how they’re being paid. They can see every deal, the exact math, and why it’s mathing that way. I rarely get questions now,” Katie explained.
By contrast, Katie used to receive a lot of earnings questions before QuotaPath. The reps would ask her to explain the math on the spreadsheet because they didn’t understand why they were being paid a particular amount instead of what they thought it should be.
Scaling Change Without Breaking History
Zapier made some plan adjustments, including quota adjustments and shifting from an annual to a quarterly goal partway through the year. QuotaPath streamlined the new plan implementation process. “It’s been really easy to log in and change the structure really quickly or set up a new plan and shift people over.”
Katie especially appreciated QuotaPath’s locked plans capability when updating comp plans, which is a complex process in Excel. “In spreadsheets, it’s really hard to do that without everything else breaking. Here, it’s easy to cut off and start something new without breaking everything you’ve already done.”
Support: Answers > Tickets
Katie’s questions were answered quickly. She felt like she never had to wait for a response to her support tickets. She liked the format of the answer too. “Whenever I put in a ticket, I get a Loom back showing me what to do, so I don’t have to ask the same question twice,” Katie said.
Katie appreciated the support model built on empowering the user. Being shown what to do and how versus needing to call in support every time for someone else to do it, so she didn’t have to slow down when encountering the same issue.
Design, track, and manage variable incentives with QuotaPath. Give your RevOps, finance, and sales teams transparency into sales compensation.
Talk to SalesA Commission Process Built to Last and Hand Off
Zapier has benefited by implementing QuotaPath. Payroll is now delivered 10 days faster than it used to be, on the 5th of the month rather than the 15th, and commission processing has been reduced to approximately one day per cycle. Real-time rep visibility into deal-level earnings has resulted in fewer questions, disputes, and manual audits, building trust, saving time, and boosting productivity.
Mid-year plan changes that used to be a complex ordeal are now made without breaking historical data, thanks to a handy QuotaPath capability that enables them to lock data before making changes. And all of this is possible because the HubSpot integration enables seamless data flow and sales compensation automation.
Would Zapier recommend QuotaPath?
Without a doubt!
“Nobody loves running commission plans,” said Katie, “The nitty-gritty takes time, and there’s a lot at risk. It’s people’s pay. QuotaPath saves time, limits questions, makes audits easy, and gives everyone confidence. It’s a great way to run comp.”
Schedule a demo to see how much faster you can process commissions with QuotaPath.
