Commission & Referral
On this page
The Commission & Referral addon keeps track of what you owe the people who send you patients: ENT doctors, their assistants, hospitals and chambers. Every referrer gets an account with each case, each amount and each payout, and at the end of the month you print a commission sheet, with or without the patient names and the items, laid out the way your centre wants.
It is for the owner or the accounts person who settles with referrers every month and wants a sheet that matches what was agreed.
Switching it on
Commission & Referral is a premium addon, so it has to be in your licence first.
- Buy it with Buy this addon on its card on Admin → Addons. When the order is confirmed, the key comes down by itself at the next licence check; Collect purchases now under License → Addon keys fetches it at once. The addon is normally switched on as it arrives.
- A key you got some other way goes in the Addon key box under License → Addon keys. Paste it and press Add the key.
- If its card on Admin → Addons still says Disabled, press Enable.
Where to find it
The sidebar heading Commission & Referral Addons holds:
- Commission: the overview for a month.
- Referrers: the people and institutions you pay.
- Cases: every line that earns commission.
- Payouts: every payment made to a referrer.
- Settings: the defaults and the design of the printed sheet.
The permissions, in the Commission group under Roles & Permissions, are See commission accounts and statements and Add and change referrers, cases and payouts.
Referrers
Referrers → + Add a referrer.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | The doctor's or institution's name. |
| Reference code | Left empty, one is made for you, such as REF-0001. |
| Kind | Doctor, Assistant, Institution or Someone else. |
| Designation | For example ENT Consultant, Audiologist or Receptionist. |
| Institution | The hospital or chamber they work from. |
| Phone, WhatsApp, E-mail, Address | How to reach them. |
| Worked out as | A percentage of the sale or A fixed amount per case. |
| Rate | A percentage, or an amount when the line beside it says fixed. |
| Status | Active, or No longer referring. |
| Note | What was agreed, and with whom. The one thing everybody forgets. |
The rate is the one used when a case is added for this referrer, and can be typed over on any case.
Cases
A case is one line: who referred, which patient, what was sold or done, and what that earns. Add one with Cases → + Add a case, or from a referrer's account.
- Who it is for: the referrer.
- Date and Invoice or reference, for example the invoice number from the till.
- Patient ID: if the centre has a file under this ID, the Patient name is filled in from it.
- What for: Hearing aid, Test, Earmould, Repair, Accessory, Battery or Other, and Which one, such as the model or the test.
- Quantity and Sale amount.
- State: Owed, Paid or Cancelled.
- Worked out as and Rate: from the referrer, unless you change them.
- Commission: worked out for you. Type over it whenever a case was agreed differently; empty works it out.
- Note: anything that explains this line a year from now.
The Cases list can be searched by patient, item or reference and filtered. Each line has Mark paid or Not paid, and Edit; Delete this case is on the edit form.
The overview
Commission shows a month at a time (choose the Month and press Show): Owed right now, Earned that month, Paid out this month and the number of Referrers. Owed to lists each referrer with cases and the amount owed, with Account and Sheet beside them. Lately shows the newest cases.
The dashboard shows Commission owed: everything not paid out yet.
A referrer's account
Account shows the referrer's details, the totals Owed, Paid, Sales referred and the month's earnings, and their cases (all of them, or one month with Show that month).
Recording a payout
Under Record a payout:
- Set From and To: every case still owing inside these dates is settled by this payout.
- Paid on, the Amount (left empty, it is the total of the cases in the period), How (cash, bKash, cheque) and a Reference.
- Add a Note if needed.
- Tick Record it without marking the cases paid only for a part payment you will settle properly later.
- Press Record the payout and confirm.
The cases in the period are marked paid. Removing a payout from the list puts the cases it settled back to owing. Payouts lists every payout to every referrer.
The commission sheet
Sheet beside a referrer prints their statement for a month. Choose Every case, Only what is owed or Only what is paid, and tick or untick Patients, What was sold and Sale amounts, then press Redraw and Print. Some centres will not put a patient's name on a paper that leaves the building; untick Patients and the column is left out.
Design opens the settings, where the title, the logo and the signature lines are set.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| How commission is usually worked out | A percentage of the sale or A fixed amount per case. Only the starting point for new referrers. |
| Usual rate | 10 by default: a percentage, or an amount when fixed. |
| Title on the printed sheet | Commission Statement by default. |
| Print the centre's logo on the sheet, Print the centre's address under the title | The letterhead of the sheet. |
| Name the patients on the sheet, List what was sold or done, Show the sale amount beside the commission | What the ticks on the sheet start as each time. |
| Note under the table | By default it asks the referrer to report any mistake within seven days. |
| Signature line, left / right | Prepared by and Received by by default. |
| Footer on the sheet | A line at the very bottom. |
A typical month
- Each time a referred patient buys or is tested, add a case with the invoice number.
- On the first of the month, open Commission for last month and look down Owed to.
- For each referrer, open Sheet, print it, and hand it over with the money.
- Open their Account and record the payout for last month's dates.
Tips
- Always type the Invoice or reference. It is what a doctor asks about first when a figure looks wrong.
- Use Note on the referrer for what was agreed, and keep it up to date when the rate changes.
- The sale number from the till in E-Commerce & POS makes a good reference for a case.