Customer Story
Fulton Financial Streamlines Commission Processing With Terrapin Technologies
In this case study, learn how Terrapin’s compensation management solution streamlined commission processing for Fulton Financial Advisors.
The Customer
Fulton Financial Advisors, which operates through affiliates of Fulton Financial Corporation, is a $5.1 billion firm offering a broad array of financial products, and trust and retirement services. Fulton Financial Corporation is based in Lancaster, PA with regional offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia. A portion of their products and services are provided in conjunction with a third party marketer.
The Challenge
Fulton was researching options to streamline their back-office operations, specifically their compensation processes. The accounting team was managing commissions with spreadsheets in Excel. Over time, as their business grew, this manual process became increasingly tedious and time-consuming as managing commissions in Excel necessitates a certain amount of data entry. The process lacked visibility across the organization and easy access to up-to-date commission numbers. Advisors and management had to rely on the operations team to collate this information into spreadsheets, which was then delivered via email several times a month. Manual data entry is inexorably prone to human errors. Fortunately for Fulton, there had not been a significant amount of human error, but they decided it was a risk they no longer wanted to take.
The Solution
Fulton chose Terrapin’s compensation management solution for more accurate and timely commission processing.
Terrapin’s Solution:
- Commission and revenue files are processed and immediately available for review.
- Back-office processes subsequent expense files with compensation adjustment features.
- Management reviews and approves payroll via the accounting dashboard.
- Advisors can view their commissions dashboard at any time throughout the month.
The Results
Automation and Accuracy
Prior to Terrapin, an inordinate amount of time was spent on data entry and resolving conflicts. Converting from a manual, spreadsheet-based commission accounting process to Terrapin’s automated compensation management solution has enabled Fulton to mitigate risk and realize cost savings. With Terrapin, Fulton minimized the potential for error inherent to data entry and calculating commissions solely in spreadsheets. All changes are timestamped and tracked in audit logs. A reduction in time spent on commission accounting has been achieved and management receives timely and accurate information. Now the operations team is positioned to focus on their core business and provide improved service to the sales organization.
Visibility and Performance Management
With the previous manual commission accounting process, Fulton’s management and sales force had limited access to commissions data. Now, the incentive compensation program is visible across the organization. Their back-office no longer needs to send spreadsheets with commissions information to advisors and management. Additionally, payroll review and approval is done in a centralized and expedient manner. Advisors readily access their compensation details anytime from a single user-friendly dashboard, thus eliminating shadow accounting. Sales management has access to up-to-date commissions and historical reporting, which gives them the information required to effectively manage sales performance and forecasting. Terrapin’s compensation management tools bring flexibility and simplicity in designing and deploying new compensation plans. Sales management now leverages these resources to turn the firm’s business goals into actionable programs, ultimately, achieving growth.
“Terrapin is familiar with our industry. From an operations perspective, this really helps minimize risk for reporting on compensation, especially for internal and external audits.”