Commission paid outside Business Central

When you move to Bitta Commission from spreadsheets or another system, some commission has usually been paid already, and some invoices are still open with commission that waits for the customer's payment. In Bitta Commission you record the paid commission on Commission Settled Outside Business Central, so it is never released or paid a second time, and you bring in the waiting commission as Open Invoice Commission Balances. This page shows you how to do both by hand or from an Excel workbook.

Before you start

• External settlements apply to commission that is still Pending. Commission waits in Pending when its component uses a payment-based eligibility policy (On Payment or On Full Payment). See Eligibility rules.
• The invoice must be a posted sales invoice with a customer ledger entry in this company, and its commission must already be calculated. See Calculate commission.
• To record and apply external settlements you need the Bitta Commission Accountant or Bitta Commission Setup Administrator permission set. The Excel imports need Bitta Commission Setup Administrator. See Permission sets.
• Decide on a reason code for these settlements, for example EXTPAID. Every external settlement needs one.

Record commission paid outside Business Central

1. Search for Commission Settled Outside Business Central.
2. Add a line for each invoice whose commission was already paid:

Field	What it does
Invoice No.	The posted sales invoice whose commission was settled.
Participant No.	The participant who was paid. Leave it blank when every participant on the invoice was paid.
Settled Date	The date the commission was paid outside Business Central. Required.
Settled Amount	The amount paid, for reference. Applying settles the pending commission of the invoice whatever this amount is.
Reason Code	Why the commission was settled outside Business Central. Required.
External Reference	The payment reference, for example the spreadsheet row or check number.
Description	A free-text note.

3. Select the lines and choose Apply.

Apply moves the pending commission of the invoice, for the participant or for everyone when Participant No. is blank, from Pending to Settled. The line then shows Status Applied, the Applied Amount, the number of Applied Earnings and Applied At. From then on the release job skips those earnings, so the commission stays settled when the customer pays.

• Applying a line again changes nothing.
• An applied line cannot be changed or deleted (BAACOMM-PUB-STATE-EXTSETTLE-001).
• Already Eligible Amount shows commission of the invoice that was already eligible when you applied. It is not moved. Review it before the next settlement, for example with an eligibility hold.

The Commission Exception Report lists the external settlements of its date range as the finding EXTERNAL_SETTLEMENT, so finance can review them. See Commission reports.

Import external settlements from Excel

For a long list, use the External settlements workbook instead of typing the lines.

1. On Commission Settled Outside Business Central, choose Download Template. You can also download it from Commission Setup Imports.
2. Fill in one row per invoice: Invoice No., Participant No., Settled Date, Settled Amount, Reason Code, External Reference and Description.
3. Choose Import from Excel and upload the file. The rows are validated and the import opens on its import card. Nothing is created yet.
4. Review the findings. A row needs an invoice number, a settled date and a reason code, and its invoice must exist. A row that was already applied for the same invoice and participant is skipped with a warning.
5. Choose Apply. Each row is recorded and applied as if you had entered it on the page.

The import steps are the same as for the other setup workbooks. See Import from Excel.

Bring in commission on open invoices

Commission that a previous system owed on an invoice that is still open at go-live is an opening balance that should wait for the customer's payment. Bitta Commission keeps these on Open Invoice Commission Balances, a read-only list that you fill with the Open invoice commissions workbook.

1. On Open Invoice Commission Balances, choose Download Template, or download it from Commission Setup Imports.
2. Fill in one row per balance: Participant No., Amount, Posting Date, Reason Code, Description, Plan Code, Component Code and Invoice No. The columns are those of the Opening balances workbook plus the invoice.
3. Choose Import from Excel, review the findings on the import card and choose Apply.

Each balance enters the ledger as a manual correction that needs approval on Commission Manual Corrections. The commission stays Pending until the linked invoice is fully paid, and moves back if the invoice is reopened. The component must use a payment-based eligibility policy; a component that makes commission eligible as soon as the invoice is posted cannot hold an open invoice balance. If the invoice is already closed, the import warns you and the balance is released the next time Release Pending Eligibility runs.

For opening balances without an invoice, use the Opening balances workbook. See Import from Excel.

When an invoice number is not unique

External settlements and both imports find the invoice through its customer ledger entry. If more than one customer ledger entry has the same invoice number, for example invoices of different customers, the app never guesses:

• Apply on Commission Settled Outside Business Central stops with BAA-EXTSETTLE-AMBIGUOUS.
• The import reports the row as an error, so it cannot be applied.

Settle such an invoice with your Bitta Commission administrator.

Errors you may see

Code	What to do
BAA-EXTSETTLE-DOCUMENT	Enter the invoice whose commission was settled.
BAA-EXTSETTLE-DATE	Enter the settled date.
BAA-EXTSETTLE-REASON	Enter a reason code.
BAA-EXTSETTLE-INVOICE	The invoice has no customer ledger entry. Enter the number of a posted sales invoice.
BAA-EXTSETTLE-AMBIGUOUS	Several customer ledger entries have this invoice number. Contact your Bitta Commission administrator.

Go-live checklist for payment-based commission

1. Load participants, plans and opening balances. See Import from Excel.
2. Calculate the open invoices that are in scope.
3. Record and apply an external settlement for every invoice whose commission was already paid.
4. Import the commission that still waits on open invoices, and approve the manual corrections.
5. Run Commission Season Readiness and the Commission Exception Report, and review the EXTERNAL_SETTLEMENT and PENDING_AFTER_CLOSE findings.
6. Check that the eligibility release job queue entry is Ready. See Job queue monitoring.

What's next

See how applied credit memos and payments move commission out of Pending: Credit memo netting.