Glossary

Accelerator: An accelerator is a type of incentive that is used in an expression to vary compensation payout amounts. Earnings factors work on output expressions by multiplying the compensation rate without affecting the quota. Multipliers work on input expressions, changing compensation amounts by moving calculation to a different tier in a rate table.

Account Generation: Account Generation is an option in System Parameters that you can use to populate account codes in General Ledger. You can select the appropriate detail level and from where the application pulls expense and liability information. Account Generation is set at the application level.

Adjust Transaction: Use this feature to correct errors and make any manual changes that are needed.

Allocation Percentage: In Sales Credit Allocation, allocation percentages indicate how much revenue credit or nonrevenue credit each resource associated with a role receives. You can assign one or more allocation percentages to each credit rule. You can create, update, or delete allocation percentages, and make them date-effective.

Application Programmable Interface (API): An application programmable interface is a set of procedures used to import or export information to and from Oracle Incentive Compensation.

Attainment Summary Report: This report is a snapshot of resource achievement and earnings. Achievements are shown against interval-to-date quota and annual quota. Earnings totals are broken down by period to date and interval to date.

Batch Mode: In Sales Credit Allocation, transactions are processed in either Batch mode or Online mode. Use Batch mode for processing large volumes of transactions. For batch processing, call a concurrent request using the Requests tab. See Online Mode.

Bonus: A percent of base pay, or fixed dollar amount, for accomplishing objectives; may be capped or uncapped. A bonus is typically paid for meeting a goal, including quantitative and qualitative goals. A Bonus plan element has no links or references to individual transactions. Bonus formulas calculate only against Individual transaction options.

Calculation

Calculation is a process used by the application to calculate commission and bonus plans for salespeople. Oracle Incentive Compensation supports two types of compensation calculation--Commission and Bonus. Commission calculation is based on transactions identified for a Commission type of plan element, which is associated with a commission type formula. Bonus calculation is based on a Bonus type plan element, which is associated with a Bonus type formula. A Bonus type formula has no links or references to transactions.There are two modes of calculation:

Complete calculation includes all resources. It is the default setting.
Incremental calculation runs only for those resources that have new transactions or changes.

Calculation goes through phases: Revert, Classification, Rollup, Population, and Calculation.

Calculation Phase: During the Calculation Phase of calculation, Oracle Incentive Compensation performs calculation on all transactions within the specified parameters. It totals the credit for the transaction, checks against the accumulated quota figure to determine the rate tier, calculates the final commissionable amount, and updates the commission due amount. The process calculates commission based on the Calculation Rules (defined in Plan Elements).

Child Node: A child node rolls up to a parent node in a rules hierarchy. A child node can roll up to only one parent node.

Classification Rules: Classification rules are user defined categories used to classify sales transactions. Classification rules are part of a classification ruleset. Classification rules vary greatly from one company to another, depending on the product or service provided and the different ways that resources are compensated.

Classification Rules Report: The Classification Rules report displays the Rule Name, Product, and Expression for classification rules selected from the list on the Rules Found page. You can download a CSV file and open it in a spreadsheet program.

Classification Ruleset: A group of classification rules assigned to a specific time period or location that sorts transactions into preset categories, so that they can be compared to eligible products in a resource's compensation plan. Only one classification ruleset can be active at a time.

Clawback: See Takeback.

Collection Query: The Collection Query specifies the exact tables and rows from those tables that you need to perform a collection from a source other than the standard collection sources.

Collections: The Collections function collects the transactions it needs to calculate commission for resources. You can collect data from different sources, based on the configuration and mapping defined between the source tables and destination tables. Oracle Receivables and Oracle Order Management are the seeded transaction sources in Oracle Incentive Compensation, but you can set up the application to collect from any other source.

Commission: Compensation paid as a percentage of sales measured in either dollars or units.

Commission Statement Report: This report includes a Balance Summary that shows balances, earnings, recoverable and nonrecoverable amounts, payment due and ending balance.

Compensation Group: A compensation group is a set of resources who share sales credit, directly or indirectly, when a sale is made. A compensation group hierarchy sets up the relationship of different compensation groups to each other.

Compensation Group Hierarchy Report: This report displays compensation groups and the resources in each, and also shows the rollup hierarchy of the groups in relation to each other.

Compensation Period: A compensation period is the time interval during which commissions are collected.

Compensation Plan: A compensation plan is a collection of one or more modular plan elements used to calculate a compensation payment. One compensation plan is assigned to a sales role, which is then assigned to a resource. Some parts of a compensation plan can be customized for individual resources, such as a payment plan or pay group, and compensation rates can be individually adjusted as well.

Compensation Transaction: A compensation transaction is a record that identifies a compensation event, such as the sale of an item. It is the smallest unit of data on which a compensation payment can be calculated.

Concurrent Program: Concurrent programs run in the background while you are using other Oracle Incentive Compensation functions. For example, you can run a concurrent program to collect transactions from a transaction source while you are building compensation plans.

Credit Memo: A credit memo is generated when an invoice is fully or partially reversed and posted to Oracle General Ledger. Credit memos are later collected and applied against transactions.

Credit Rule: Credit rules are defined for Sales Credit Allocation using credit rule attributes, which you set up for each transaction source. Credit rules evaluate inputs using attributes to determine if credit should be allocated to credit receivers. Credit rules also specify the allocation percentage by revenue type (Revenue, Non-revenue) for each role.

Credit Rule Hierarchy: A credit rule hierarchy maintains and links rules in a logical manner. A child credit rule automatically inherits the conditions of the parent rule.

Credit Type: Credit types must be defined for use in Oracle Incentive Compensation. The credit type is normally the preset functional currency, but it can be any type that you define in the application, such as points or air miles.

CSV File: A CSV file is a data file in which the values are delimited by commas. The acronym CSV is used to represent Comma Separated Value.

Cumulative: A type of performance cycle. A performance cycle is cumulative when the performance of the resource is measured over subsequent performance periods.

Customized Box: Check the Customized box if you want to customize a role for a resource. If the Customized box is checked, subsequent changes to the agreement may not affect the resource.

Customized Flag: If you leave the Customized Flag box unchecked for a plan element, then any changes you make to the quota or rates for that plan element are automatically inherited by the resource. If you check the box, the contents of the customized plan element are not affected by any changes you make to the plan element at the role level.

Deal Split: Use the Deal Split function to split up sales credit for an entire deal. You must query a specific transaction by order number or invoice number to expose the Deal Split button on the Transactions page.

Debit Memo: A debit memo is generated to fully or partially increase an invoice. It is posted to Oracle General Ledger. Debit memos are later collected and applied against transactions.

Dimension: See Rate Dimension.

Direct Sales Credit: Direct sales credit is credit that is directly assigned to a resource in a transaction in a feeder system, such as Oracle Quoting or Order Management, or another non-Oracle legacy system. See: Indirect Sales Credit.

Draw: A draw is a mechanism to pay a resource a minimum amount of compensation for a specified period of time. You can define the period that the draw and recovery will be in effect by using a payment plan. As part of the agreement with resources, this amount can be recoverable or nonrecoverable.

Drill Down, Drilldown: Drill down (verb) means to click a link to go to a greater level of detail. Drilldown is the noun form.

Earnings Statement Report: This report gives you a complete look at all of the transactions for a resource for a selected period. The columns on the report are parameters that you select in the parameters modification page.

Expense Account: An expense account is an account type segment in Oracle General Ledger. Expense accounts can be identified at the plan element level. Earnings for the plan element are assigned to the specified expense account in Oracle General Ledger. See the Oracle General Ledger User Guide for more information.

Export: See Import and Export.

Expression: Expressions are interchangeable, reusable parts that are used as input and output expressions of formulas, in expression-based rate dimensions and in performance measures. Input expressions tell Oracle Incentive Compensation what to evaluate from the transactions and how to match the results to the corresponding rate table. Output expressions instruct the application how much to pay resources.

External Formula: External formulas are used when the formula requires some data that is not in the application. They are similar to system generated formulas, except that they contain customized material. This means that when you upgrade the application, any changes that were made are not automatically applied to the external formula, so they must be applied manually. For external formulas, you must enter the name of the PL/SQL package in the Package Name field.

External Table: Oracle Incentive Compensation can accommodate external tables, as long as the tables are properly registered in the application.

Failed Records: Sometimes records fail during the import process. This often occurs because the content or the organization of the record is incorrect. The Failed Records page displays any records that failed during the import process, and the reasons for failure.

Fixed Amount: Fixed Amount is a constant amount in a compensation plan that is used for calculation purposes. Resources do not have a view or access to the fixed amount.

Fixed Component: See Component.

Formula: A formula is a set of instructions that determines how compensation is calculated. Formulas are built from input expressions, output expressions, and rate tables. Formulas used in Incentive Planning must be designated as planning formulas with a specific combination of rules. For these formulas, only one input expression is permitted. A bonus formula has no links or references to transactions. You can use an external formula when defining a plan element. See External Formula.

Functional Currency: Functional currency is the currency in which Oracle Incentive Compensation performs all calculations. It is the currency used by General Ledger to record transactions and maintain accounting data for the set of books. After functional currency has been set up for an organization, it does not change.

Goal: Goal is the amount that management sets as the actual goal expected of the resources in a compensation plan. This amount is typically used for reporting purposes and is not exposed to the resources.

Group By Interval: When you use a Group by interval, all transactions from a predefined period are submitted together for calculation. This period can be a month, quarter, or year. Group by Interval calculation requires that you check the Cumulative box. Commission is calculated by applying the total amount of the grouped transactions to the rate table.

Import and Export: In Oracle Incentive Compensation, you can import data to spreadsheets and export data from spreadsheets. You can import data into Oracle Incentive Compensation for hierarchies, classification rulesets, calculation expressions, and products. You can also import personalized agreements that were downloaded and personalized by a manager offline, or contracts that were approved offline by a contract approver. You can import transactions during the Collection process. You can export data from Oracle Incentive Compensation for hierarchies and expressions.

Indirect Sales Credit: Indirect sales credit is inherited by a resource according to his or her place in the resource hierarchy. Indirect sales credit typically rolls up from a resource to a manager.

Incremental Calculation: Incremental Calculation marks all predefined transaction events in a notification log table known as the Notify Log. By doing this, Oracle Incentive Compensation runs calculation only for the resources that require it.

Interval: Intervals are time periods during which a compensation or a plan element is effective. Plan element intervals must be contained within the effective interval of a compensation plan.

Interval to Date: Use an Interval to Date plan element in a compensation plan if you want to pay compensation based on accumulated achievement during a specified period. This type of plan element calculates commission based on achievement towards cumulative quota targets, such as Period to Date (PTD), Quarter to Date (QTD), or Year to Date (YTD).

Interval Type: An interval type is the time period of an interval. Commonly used interval types are month, quarter, and year. You can define a custom interval.

Liability Account: A Liability Account is an account type segment in Oracle General Ledger. Liability accounts can be identified at the plan element level. Earnings for the plan element are assigned to the specified liability account in Oracle General Ledger. See the Oracle General Ledger User Guide for more information.

Listing Notification: During data collection, this feature makes a list of all individual transaction lines from the transaction Source for which compensation is payable.

Manual Transaction: A manual transaction is created by a user to reverse or change sales credit.

Mapping: Mapping is the set of rules defining collection that connect the table columns of a feeder system to the transaction columns in Oracle Incentive Compensation. Mapping can be direct or indirect. Direct mapping uses source data from one or more of the tables in the From clause of the Collection Query. Indirect mapping is more complex, and uses From and Where clauses in an UPDATE statement.

Move Credits: Move Credits is used in Collections to mass adjust a group of transactions based on criteria selected in the parameters. Use the Move Credits function when the sales credit for a number of transactions has been erroneously assigned to a resource.

Notification Log: The Notification log, also known as the Notify Log, automatically records every change in the system that affects calculation and lists what part of the calculation must be rerun as a result of an event. This is especially useful when performing Incremental Calculation.

Notification Query: A notification query shows the exact query which will be used to create the Notification list of line-level transactions which are eligible for compensation. It is used when collecting from a source other than the standard transaction sources.

Online Mode: Transactions are processed in either Batch mode or Online mode. Online mode is best if you want to create a manual transaction and need to find resources and their corresponding allocation percentages in real time. For online processing, you must call a PL/SQL API. See Batch Mode.

Open Collections: Oracle Incentive Compensation can collect transaction information from any source, including legacy systems, provided that the other system's data can be accessed in the same database instance.

Org Striping: Org striping means marking something, such as a role, by organization. This is used to limit access to data to those who need it.

Parent Node: A parent node is a node in a rules hierarchy which has at least one node that rolls up to it. A parent node typically summarizes information concerning the nodes below it, referred to as child nodes.

Pay Group: A pay group is an assignment that determines the frequency with which a resource receives payment. Pay group assignment is necessary for a resource to be paid. A resource cannot belong to more than one pay group at a time. You can assign a pay group to a role, in the same way that a compensation plan is assigned to a role. Resources inherit the pay group when the role is assigned to them. You can perform individual pay group assignment to a resource.

Payee Assignment: Use Payee Assignment if you want to assign the payment to someone other than the resource receiving the sales credit. For example, use payee assignment if a credit receiver leaves the company and a new resource takes over the account.

Payment

There are three types of payment:

Regular Payment: The application collects data, prepares it, and formats it to be used by a non-Oracle Payable system.
Accounts Payable Integration: Used for vendors, this method prepares payment for Oracle Accounts Payable by classifying the resources as suppliers.
Oracle Payroll Integration: The application collects data and creates a file that can be used by Oracle Payroll.

Payment Analyst Hierarchy: A Payment Analyst Hierarchy is a hierarchy in Resource Manager that determines worksheet approval rollup and resource read/write security. The hierarchy is created using groups, roles, and resources that utilize the Sales Compensation Payment Analyst usage.

Payment Group: The payment group setting enables you to assign multiple payment plans to a resource as long as the payment groups are in different payment groups for a specific date range. The payment group codes are customizable; the default setting is Standard.

Payment Hold: Payment on a specific transaction can be held so that it is not paid. Compensation analysts make payment holds under the discretionary review. Reasons for payment holds include incorrect revenue recognition, credit holds, and company policies, such as holding high commissions.

Payment Plan: A payment plan is an optional arrangement in affect for some salespeople who need to receive a minimum payment regardless of their earnings. You can specify a minimum and/or a maximum payment as well as whether any minimum payments are recoverable or not against future amounts payable. Payment recovery can be on a separate schedule from the compensation period.

Payment Batch

Oracle Incentive Compensation uses payment batches to determine payment amounts. The payment batch process considers:

Who is paid
Which transactions are paid
How much is paid
When payment occurs

Paysheet: An individual paysheet displays the details of the total payment amount for a resource. It comprises manual payments, calculated payments, total payments, and recoveries. Paysheets are part of a payment batch.

Performance Measure: An accumulation of transaction values that is captured by a Plan Element and grouped for use in reports that compare achievements to Quota, Goal and Performance Measure. Performance measures are not used to calculate commission.

Period: The time span over which performance is measured for incentive purposes. The typical period in Incentive Compensation is a month, but it can be a quarter, a year, or a custom definition.

Plan Element: Plan elements are the parts from which compensation plans are built. Plan elements may reflect variations of commission or perhaps a bonus based on the accumulated achievement of the resource. Plan elements can also be configured for tracking nonmonetary credits such as managerial points or production credits. Plan elements consist of modular components that can be freely assigned in different combinations, including products, formulas, and rate tables. Interdependent plan elements use the calculated totals of one plan element to calculate for commission for another plan element.

Population Phase: During the Population phase of calculation, Oracle Incentive Compensation identifies the appropriate plan elements that are associated with the resource's compensation plan that have been allocated to the transactions. The application attempts to match transactions with the Plan Elements for the credited resources and if the match is successful, the transaction is populated.

Preprocessed Code: In Collections, the Preprocessed Code drop-down list contains 16 combinations of skipping the four main phases of calculation: Classification, Population, Rollup, and Calculation. You can also skip all phases or skip nothing. There are a variety of reasons for skipping phases of calculation. The main benefit is saving time. See Chapter 8 for details.

Product: A product is a user-defined category of business revenue used to classify a transaction for compensation and calculation. Products are assigned to plan elements and help determine whether classified sales credit is applied toward a compensation payment.

Product Rules: Product rules contain one or more conditions that a transaction must meet to classify into a given product. Product rules are combined into a ruleset.

Product Hierarchy: A product hierarchy is an arrangement of products and subproducts in which the broadest classes are at the top of the structure.

Profile Option: Profile options enable an organization to configure the application to suit its business requirements. Some profile options are required and some are optional. Most profile options have preset default values that you can change as needed.

Quota: A quota is the total amount that a resource or manager is expected to sell. Management uses quotas to distribute the organization's sales commitment to all resources.

Rate Dimension

Rate dimensions define the tiers that a rate table uses to calculate commission percentages. There are four kinds:

Amount: The rate tiers are amounts.
Percent: The rate tiers are percentages of a quota.
Expression: These rate dimensions reference calculation expressions, and can be used to create more complex rate tiers.
String: The rate tiers are alphanumeric, such as product numbers or the names of states.

Rate Table: A rate table is used to establish compensation percentage rates or fixed amounts for different performance levels. As part of a formula, along with input and output expressions, a rate table determines the amount of compensation based on amount or percentage of achievement compared to quota. Rate tables can use percent or amount, or both, to calculate commission percentages. A multidimensional rate table uses more than one dimension to calculate commission percentages, for example, State and Product.

Recoverable, Nonrecoverable: These terms define whether compensation can be recovered from (paid back by) the resource who receives it or not.

Request ID: When submitting calculation, the request ID is stored as a column and a search parameter for any calculation request that is submitted concurrently. The Request ID is not recorded for calculation requests that are submitted as an online request.

Resource: Anyone who is set up to receive compensation in Oracle Incentive Compensation, including salespeople, managers, and administrators.

Responsibility: People are assigned different responsibilities in Oracle Incentive Compensation to allow them appropriate access to the application. For example, the Incentive Compensation Super User has access to everything in the application, while other responsibilities, such as Incentive Planning Analyst, can access only the areas in the application that are required to perform their jobs.

Responsibility Group: Oracle Incentive Compensation uses responsibility groups to assign access privileges to responsibilities. These groups determine which groups and resources the person assigned to the responsibility can work on. All seeded responsibilities are already placed in appropriate responsibility groups during installation of the application, but any new responsibility that you create for use in Incentive Planning must be assigned a responsibility group.

Role: A role describes a set of resources who share a common compensation structure. Examples are Salesperson, Consultant, and Regional Sales Manager. In Oracle Incentive Compensation, each individual resource is assigned a predetermined role, which can be customized. Changes to a role affect everyone assigned to that role who does not have the Customized box checked on the compensation plan. A resource can have more than one role at the same time.

Rollup Phase: During the Rollup phase of calculation, Oracle Incentive Compensation runs a process to determine all resources who should receive credit for a transaction, based on the rollup date and the resource hierarchy effective for that date. For every credit receiver, Oracle Incentive Compensation creates a new system-generated transaction and the lines are marked as Rolled Up.

Rollup Summarized Transactions: The rollup summarized transactions process significantly reduces the number of transactions that need to be processed, which improves performance.

Root Node: Root node is the highest level of a rules hierarchy. You can place as many nodes under the root node as necessary to meet your business objectives. Oracle Incentive Compensation provides the flexibility to create multiple root nodes.

Rules Hierarchy: A rules hierarchy sets up relationships between rules. The structure of a rules hierarchy starts with a root, then adds one or more parent rules, and then as many child rules as needed. A rule can have one or more child rules or siblings.

Ruleset

A ruleset is a collection of rules. There are three types of Rulesets, which are used for revenue classification, account generation, and plan element classification.

Revenue Classification defines the rules that are used to identify a product for each transaction that the system processes as part of calculating commissions.
Account Generation is used to integrate Oracle Incentive Compensation automatically with Accounts Payable and to classify transactions to identify Expense and Liability Accounts.
Plan Element Classification is used to classify quotes, opportunities, and so on, for the Projected Compensation API.

Runtime Parameters: Runtime parameters are used to narrow the range of transactions collected in a collection package if you are using a custom transaction source. For example, a start date and end date can be defined. The parameters are defined on the Queries page in the setup process.

Sales Credit: An amount of revenue or nonrevenue credit that is awarded to a resource.

Sales Credit Allocation: Sales Credit Allocation automates the credit allocation process by systematically applying a set of consistent rules. This minimizes errors, thereby reducing the time analysts must spend reconciling them.

Sales Role: See Role.

Sales Credit Allocation: This is an automated process that accurately determines who should receive credit and how much credit should be given to each credit receiver. Credit allocation can be applied at different times within the sales cycle, for example, opportunities, quotes, orders, and invoices.

Seasonality, Seasonality Schedule: Seasonality relates to sales patterns that change over the course of a year. Seasonality schedules are used to distribute product/service income or cost/expense throughout the year, expressed in percentages of the year's total.

Set of Books: A set of books identifies a company or fund within Oracle Applications that shares a common chart of accounts, structure, calendar, and functional currency. Oracle Incentive Compensation processes incentive compensation payments according to periods defined in a calendar associated with a set of books that is defined in Oracle General Ledger (see the Oracle General Ledger User Guide).

Split: Components of an Incentive Planning agreement can use a split when calculating quota against a rate table. When you split tiers of a rate table, you pay commission at the lowest tier possible in the rate table. Splits are proportional or nonproportional. A nonproportional split is used with rate tables that pay based on percentages of the transaction amount. For rate tables that pay an amount instead of a percentage, a proportional split is used to takes the amount of the transaction that falls within a tier and divide it by the entire amount paid for that tier. This generates a percentage that can be applied against the transaction amount in the tier.

Split Transaction: Use the Split Transaction page to distribute sales credit in whole or in part between one resource and another or among a group of resources. You can split sales credit for a transaction differently depending on the transaction split percentage of the transaction. This percentage is assigned to the transaction when it is created or as an adjustment.

Standard Transaction Sources: The standard transaction sources for collection are Oracle Receivables and Oracle Order Management Collections. These seeded sources are set up when the application is shipped.

Takeback: The amount of compensation credited for a sale that Oracle Incentive Compensation takes back when the invoice due date grace period is exceeded. If the invoice is subsequently paid, then a giveback can be used to restore credit to a resource. Takebacks are sometimes called clawbacks.

Target: Target is the specific amount set for resources as their attainment amount in a Compensation Plan. Resources have views of this figure through their contract. The most common way that a target is used in an expression is for evaluating transactions as a percentage of quota.

Team Compensation: If the resource on the transaction is a member of a team, then Oracle Incentive Compensation automatically calculates compensation for every member of the team. Teams are set up in Resource Manager. However, although team members all receive credit for the transaction, the sales credit rolls up a sales hierarchy only on the original transaction.

Threshold: Minimum level of performance that must be achieved to earn compensation on a rate table.

Transaction Batch Size: Along with the Salesperson Batch Size, the Transaction Batch Size determines how many transaction batch runners get submitted for concurrent calculation. This is a setting in System Parameters.

Transaction Details Report: This report shows transactional details for a specified resource and is used primarily by the Incentive Compensation Analyst. The report can be run to show results of any specified period and by transaction status. This report is configurable.

Transaction Factor: A transaction factor stages sales credit over the life of a sale, assigning percentages of the transaction amount to important events in the sales process, including Invoice, Order, and Payment. Transaction factors must add up to 100%.

Transaction Filters: Transaction filters allow you to define criteria to remove unwanted transactions during collection. Transaction filters are especially relevant to Receivables and Order Management, because you cannot change the collection query for those standard transaction sources.

User Code Blocks

User code blocks are single or multiple PL/SQL statements (functions and procedures) that you can insert at defined points in the Collection procedure. User code blocks can be inserted at:

Pre-Notification: at the beginning of the Notification query
Post-Notification: between running the Notification and Collection queries
Post-Collection: after the Collection query has been run

Year To Date Summary: The Year to Date Summary is an overview of a resource's achievements, commission and bonus earnings and advances or draws. This report is accessible by the Compensation Manager, Compensation Analyst, and Incentive Compensation User (Self Service) responsibilities.