| Unilevel
Compensation Plan Support |
Unilevel compensation plans are one of the most popular types used in MLM Software today. The word ?Unilevel? is somewhat misleading, as
"Uni" relates to single or one, but Unilevel plans almost always provide multiple levels of payout. So a better terminology
to use would be Multilelvel, but the industry has and continues to use the term Unilevel. Unilevel plans have also been around a long time and are typically described as one of the safest for companies because maximum payouts can always be determined, allowing companies to clearly understand their
maximum commission payouts on products or services. Unilevel plans are also considered the easiest to understand by distributors, as there are fixed commission payouts on multiple levels.
For your MLM Software needs, Firestorm® offers a Unilevel commission payout that is completely user-configurable. Multiple levels of payout can be configured, and deeper levels of pay can be configured for higher sales ranks (promotional titles), completely eliminating expensive custom programming when you set it up or make future changes. Trinity Software released Unilevel functionality as a standard part of Firestorm® when it was first released over 8 years ago. This means over 8 years of valuable MLM Software input from our clients that has evolved the Unilevel functionality. This functionality and many other configurable features are explained further below, providing you with total flexibility for implementation and ongoing management of your Unilevel compensation plan.
About any Unilevel feature you can think of is included and configurable in Firestorm®.
Just to give you an idea of Unilevel MLM Software capabilities of Firestorm®, companies can define multiple levels of pay, use percentages or fixed amounts for each payout, set different payouts for different products, set different payouts for different countries, and set different payouts for different sales ranks (promotional titles).
Firestorm® also allows compression to be easily configured and even a Unilevel Check Matching Bonus that pays on multiple levels.
For your MLM Software requirements to support your distributors, the Firestorm® web office login area is loaded with Unilevel reports and tools, such as multiple Graphical Tree View Genealogy reports, spotlight boxes, tabular genealogy reports that allow searching and sorting, front-line activity reports, dashboard reports with speedometer gauges that can be configured to show Unilevel structure related data, and you can even offer a Unilevel Structure Move Tool that allows distributors to move someone who enrolled on their front line to another level (while separately maintaining the appropriate sponsor relationship).
For your MLM Software customer service requirements, Firestorm® is loaded with tools for your administrative staff to manage and support every aspect of your Unilevel model. Need to make structure moves because someone got put in the wrong place or wants to move under someone else? No problem. Firestorm® provides two different structure move tools for your staff to perform individual moves or entire down-line moves very simple and very fast. In the admin side, Customer Service reps can view individual Unilevel down-lines, generate Unilevel commissions at any time for any date range, view Unilevel commission payouts in each order, in each commission check, and in multiple corporate reports.
These features and literally hundreds of others are all available for you to configure and get your Unilevel system up and running quickly and efficiently!
The following is a breakdown of configurable features and capabilities related to the Unilevel compensation plan that are a standard part of the Firestorm® MLM Software System.
|
Unilevel-Specific Features of the Firestorm® System
- Multiple Genealogy Structure Types - For a Unilevel compensation plan, Firestorm® includes completely separate Sponsorship, Enroller and Binary genealogy structures (genealogy trees).
- Separate Genealogy Tracking - Distributors can track their sponsorships or enrollments separately from a Unilevel or Binary Tree (or both), and allows you to configure your own commissions specifically in each structure.
|
- Multiple Ranks - For your MLM Software compensation plan, Firestorm® provides multiple sales ranks (promotional titles) for your distributors.
- Specific Rules and Qualifications - Each sales rank can have specific promotional advancement rules and commissions qualifications (what they need to accomplish to promote or qualify for a commission).
- Included with Pricing - All of our Firestorm® pricing packages include the development of your compensation plan sales rank promotional rules and qualifications.
- One Efficient Process - We have one efficient process that promotes, demotes, qualifies, un-qualifies, activates and deactivates your distributors.
- Separate Pay and Lifetime Sales Ranks - Firestorm® also tracks their pay rank (for commission purposes), their minimum sales rank (a level they will never fall below), and a separate lifetime rank (their highest achieved sales rank). This provides the utmost flexibility for tracking and presentation of your distributor achievements.
|
 |
- Different Types - There are several different types of genealogy reports to present to your distributors in their web office login area for tracking and managing their Unilevel down-line.
- Control of Report Presentation - You have full control over which reports they have, and you can add or remove reports at any time.
- Report List - The following Unilevel related genealogy reports are available: Unilevel Tree View, Tabular Genealogy, Graphical Tree View, Front Line Activity, Information Genealogy and Tabular Dashboard.
|
|
Web Office Login Area Unilevel Reports and Tools
The following is a list of reports available in the distributor's web office login area (sometimes called the backoffice) that are available for companies with a Unilevel compensation plan.
|
The Unilevel Tree View Report provides a graphical view for distributors to view their Unilevel downline in an indented level format. Each person in each level can be expanded. The level below them will indent and list all persons on that level under that person. The color coding of each person's qualification status and separate colors for each level make this report a nice addition to your web office tools.
- Placement or Sponsorship - Distributors can pull their sponsorship or placement genealogy report and see a graphical view of the selected tree.
- View Multiple Positions - If your compensation plan offers multiple structure positions (dealerships), they are also presented for selection. Compensation plans that provide re-entry positions and mulitple matrixes to their disitributors for example, make this tool available to them as they can easily view their downline under any structure position.
- Color Coded Levels - Each level can be configured as a different color and when expanded or collapsed, all of the positions in that level will display the same color.
- Spotlight Report - Double clicking on any person in their tree will display a detailed spotlight box showing important details about that person. Corporate staff can configure the details from admin screens that will be displayed in the spotlight box.
|
|
 |
Our tabular genealogy report provides a spreadsheet-like view into a distributor's downline. This tool provides many advanced searching and sorting capabilities. The content displayed by this tool is fully controllable by you. You decide what information you want to display for each person in the downline and your staff can assign the columns to the report with just a few clicks of the mouse in the admin side of Firestorm(R).
- Assignable Fields - The data that a distributor needs to see generally depends on the compensation plan of your company. Your system administrator can quickly assign fields to be displayed by using a configuration tool in Firestorm.
- Advanced Macro Capability For Custom Data - Need to display data specific to your compensation plan? Sales Numbers? Volume by a period of time? All of this and more is possible with the advanced macro capability this tool offers. Our engineers can create macros for you to display any piece of information you might need.
- Full Searching Capability - Full searching on any assigned column is fully supported. Wildcard searches can also be performed. Want to see everyone of a specific pay rank? No problem! Simple select that column, enter the rank you are looking for and click the filter button.
- Sort By Any Column - All columns include support for both ascending and descending sorts by clicking a column header.
- Sort By Structure - Structure sort gives your distributors the ability to view the physical layout of their downline.
- Advanced Filtering Capability - Filtering gives your distributors a very comprehensive ability to do complex filtering on the downline. Any field on the report can be used to filter out non-relevant records from the downline.
- "Jump To" Capability - If multiple records exist in the downline (ie: last name "smith"), this feature allows you to "jump" to the next occurrence of that record in the downline while still displaying the rest of the downline.
- Multiple Versions - Firestorm allows your company to put up multiple versions this tool that displays different data sets (see Information Genealogy Report below). There are not limits on the number of versions of this report that can be displayed.
|
|
|
This report contains the genealogy of your organization and can be used with a Unilevel compensation plan. Each position listed shows the top 5 legs for that person and different people can be in the top 5 at any time. Their position is based on the amount of volume present in the leg at the time this report was last generated.
- Filter Results By Position - If you have multiple structure positions, you can enter a position number and pull the genealogy for the selected position.
- Filter Results by Pay Rank - You can enter a starting sales rank and an ending sales rank and display your genealogy with people in your downline that have current sales rank titles only within the range.
- Filter Results By Enroll Date - You can enter a starting and an ending enroll date and display your genealogy with people who only enrolled during that date range.
- Filter Results by Name - You can enter the name of a distributor in your downline and display information just for that person.
- Filter Results by Leg Number - You can enter a leg number and display everyone in that specific leg.
- Identify Which Member a Leg Represents - Hovering your cursor over any of the legs in the row will reveal the name and the member ID of the person that is in that position.
- Range Filtering Feature - If you only enter a starting value, the system will pull all records with that value or higher. In other words, if you wish to see all enrollments from 1/1/2007 onward, simply enter '1/1/2007' in the starting enroll date field and nothing in the ending date field.
- Sorting data - Click on the header of any column to sort the information in that column. The sort will occur in ascending order (a-z) first. Clicking the same column again will cause the data to be sorted in descending order (z-a).
- Autoship Amount - Hovering your mouse over the autoship icon will reveal the commissionable value for that autoship.
|
|
|
The Firestorm® Tree Viewer Report is the most versatile genealogy report in the industry today. Ultimate flexibility is provided to distributors for selecting any structure type, including Unilevel. Corporate defines the structures to be presented and the max levels for each structure type.
- Visual Display Of Entire Downline - This tool is unique in the way it works, in that it will display any size downline to any depth or width, and it does so graphically! Scrolling horizontally and vertically allows quick viewing of any area of the entire genealogy.
- Display Multiple Structure Types - If your Unilevel compensation plan includes a Binary element to it, this report will also display the Binary structure for a distributor. Sponsorship lineage can also be displayed. This allows your distributor to actually see how they will be paid in all phases of your plan!
- Use Specified Number Of Levels To Display At Once - Firestorm allows you to configure how many levels of the structure can be displayed at one time. While a distributor's entire downline is always viewable by drilling down, this option allows you to prevent someone with a huge downline from loading down your server.
- Drill Down Navigation - Clicking any node in the tree will bring that position to the top of the display, and then re-draw the structure from that point down. Special icons indicate to the user if a downline continues down a leg.
- Distributor Details Displayed for Each Node - Name, Pay Rank, Autoship, Personally Sponsored indicator and ID Number.
- Advanced Distributor Details Spotlight Report - Fully configurable pop-up report to display the distributor?s replicating website picture and any information desired about a person in the tree. Firestorm allows you to place any data you want on this report with simple configurations performed by administrative personnel.
- Frontline Activity Report - If so configured, this tool will bring up a special front line activity report for the person who was clicked.
- Custom Reporting - If required for your compensation plan, Firestorm offers the option of bringing up a custom report created specifically for your company when a person's name is clicked.
- Photo of Each Distributor - Each distributor's photograph is stored in the system, and is displayed when that person's node is clicked in the tree.
- Color Coded Status of Each Distributor - Each distributor's status (commission qualified, active, inactive, terminated, etc) is displayed on the report as a color coded icon.
- Full Searching Capabilities - The tool allows your distributors to search their downline by several parameters. Search results are displayed in a grid, that when clicked, will synchronize itself to the tree view.
|
|
|
The Frontline Activity Web Report shows your front line positions (legs, or people who are directly under you) along with the status of each leg. This information is presented to help distributors manage their qualification requirements that many times require certain achievements in separate legs.
- Filter Results By Position - If you have multiple structure positions, you can enter a position number and pull the genealogy for the selected position.
- Distributor Default Details Displayed - Member ID, Name, Active Leg Icon, PSV, Autoship Next Ship, Downline Volume, Leg Type, Enrolled Date, and Position ID (Dealership ID).
- Data Sorting - Distributors can click on any column header to sort by that field. Clicking the same column again will re-sort the list in reverse order.
- Assignable Fields - The data that a distributor needs to see generally depends on the compensation plan of your company. Your system administrator can quickly assign fields to be displayed by using a configuration tool in the admin side of Firestorm.
|
|
|
The Firestorm® Information Genealogy Report is similar to the Tabular Genealogy Report and allows companies to present different columns of pertinent information for distributors. The same searching, filtering and sorting features are provided. If your compensation plan offers multiple business centers, they are also presented for selection.
- Assignable Fields - The data that a distributor needs to see generally depends on the compensation plan of your company. Your system administrator can quickly assign fields to be displayed by using a configuration tool in the admin side of Firestorm.
- Advanced Macro Capability For Custom Data - Need to display data specific to your compensation plan? Sales Numbers? Volume by a period of time? All of this and more is possible with the advanced macro capability this tool offers. Our engineers can create macros for you to display any piece of information you might need.
- Full Searching Capability - Full searching on any assigned column is fully supported. Wildcard searches can also be performed. Want to see everyone of a specific pay rank? No problem! Simple select that column, enter the rank you are looking for and click the filter button.
- Sort By Any Column - All columns include support for both ascending and descending sorts by clicking a column header.
- Sort By Structure - Structure sort gives your distributors the ability to view the physical layout of their downline.
- Advanced Filtering Capability - Filtering gives your distributors a very comprehensive ability to do complex filtering on the downline. Any field on the report can be used to filter out non-relevant records from the downline.
- "Jump To" Capability - If multiple records exist in the downline (ie: last name "smith"), this feature allows you to "jump" to the next occurrence of that record in the downline while still displaying the rest of the downline.
|
|
|
The Firestorm® View My Generations Report shows a distributor?s downline broken up into generations. Each generation is presented in order, in it's own group. This report can help determine the amount of volume that is coming from each one of the distributor?s groups in order to help them calculate their compensation.
- Summary by Generation - Get a quick readout of the total current month and prior month personal retail sales volume for each generation.
- Generation Breakdown - This section shows your downline distributors in each of your generations and displays Member ID, Full Name, Pay Rank, Status, Current Month Personal Retail and Prior Month Personal Retail.
|
|
|
The Firestorm® Unilevel Tree View Tool allows distributors to move someone from their frontline (they personally sponsored) onto a different level. The sponsoring relationship is completely preserved.
- Define a Time Limit - A time limit can be defined that permits your distributors to move someone only within a certain time period, such as 30 days, from their enroll date.
- Define a Number of Moves - A limited number of moves can be defined for each person on the frontline.
- Define Number of Levels - The number of levels distributors are allowed to move someone down can also be defined, which allows companies to permit moves only within the number of pay levels defined in their compensation plan.
|
|
|
The Firestorm(R) MLM Software system provides a tremendous amount of administrative features and tools for corporate staff to change most anything without getting a programmer involved (lowering your operating costs). The following Firestorm(R) features are available for your corporate staff to configure and update at any time.
|
|
Admin Tool - Global Multilevel (Unilevel) Configuration
| In the admin side of Firestorm®, you can configure several global settings to meet your specific Unilevel compensation plan requirements. This allows you complete flexibility to define your requirements and even customize certain web tool views for your distributors. |
- Payout Levels - Set the number of Unilevel payout levels your compensation plan contains. Even colors can be defined for each level that displays in certain Unilevel web and admin reports
- Compression - For your Unilevel commissions, one check box allows you to activate compression for your payouts. When a person is not qualified for a Unilevel commission payout, compression allows the system to search upline (following the line of Unilevel placement) for the next qualified person to receive the commission.
- Adjust Unilevel Payouts on Order Discounts - If you configure sales discounts for product orders, you can configure the system to equally reduce Unilevel payouts that are configured as a percentage payout of the purchase price.
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® your customer service reps have several valuable Unilevel reports and tools.
- View Genealogy - Customer Service Reps have quick access to a graphical Unilevel downline view. Reps can expand or collapse each leg, allowing drill down for viewing specific areas of the downline. Reps can sync the tree view to a specific person in the downline and quickly return to the downline starting point.
- View Unilevel Commission-Qualifed - In the admin side of Firestorm® your customer service reps can quickly view the Unilevel qualified status of any distributor, including their status of multiple structure positions if your compensation plan provides them.
- View Unilevel Commission Details - Customer Service can also view the commission details of every commission check for each distributor.
- Two-Way Commission Auditing - Customer Service has two ways to locate and view Unilevel commissions that have been paid. They can view the history of a specific order and it will show every commission record for every level payout, including the name of the distributor who received the commission. They can also view a distributor's check details and each Unilevel commsission record detail will show them the order ID, the name of the purchaser, and the product ID that generated the commission!
|
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® you can configure your entire Unilevel commission payouts behind any product in any catalog with any price. Want your MLM Software to provide different products, different pricing and configure different Unilevel commission payouts for a different country? Would you like to configure different payouts for seasonal products, contests and special bonus incentives?
Then Firestorm® is the solution for you and the following information explains how.
- Payout Levels by Sales Rank - You can configure each sales rank with any number of payout levels, allowing deeper payouts for higher ranks. For example, a Bronze Distributor can get paid on 3 levels, a Silver Distributor can get paid on 4 levels, and so on.
- Percentage or Fixed Amount - Percentages of the product price or set dollar amounts can be entered for any payout on any product.
- Unilevel Check Matching Bonuses - Your Firestorm(R) MLM Software can also allow you to configure Unilevel check matching bonuses! A matching bonus typically pays a matching percentage to the sponsor of the person who earned a Unilevel commission. A matching bonus can be configured on any level payout for any sales rank, allowing total flexibility ? even multiple level matching bonuses.
- Generate Unilevel Commissions - In the admin side of Firestorm® you can generate your Unilevel commissions at any time with any date range.
- Select Start and End Dates - No problem to wait a week after the month closes, as date ranges in the past can be selected from calendar drop downs and Firestorm® will only generate Unilevel commissions for the orders that fall within the selected date range.
- Protection Against Double Pay - No worries if dates are entered for orders that commissions have been previously paid, as each order is flagged as commissions-paid to prevent duplicate payouts.
|
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® you can generate your Unilevel commission checks at any time and with any date range. Generating checks is a completely separate process from your Unilevel commissions generation, giving you complete control. This is helpful if you want to generate commission reports and perform detailed analysis of payouts before generating checks.
- Select Start and End Dates - No problem to wait a defined time period after commissions are generated, as date ranges in the past can be selected from calendar drop downs and Firestorm® will only generate checks for the commissions that fall within the selected date range.
- Protection Against Double Check Generation - No worries if check dates are entered for commissions have been previously put on another check, as each commission record is flagged as put on a check to prevent duplicate checks.
|
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® your staff can claw back or reverse Unilevel commissions when a circumstance arises where a distributor should not have been paid, or should return a commission back to the company that was paid.
- Commission Record Search Options - Your accounting staff can pull commission records by Dealership ID (position ID) or by Order ID. The appropriate commissions will be displayed for the individual or the order.
- Commission Record Display Information - A checkbox is provided to display all commissions or unpaid only. Each commission record shows the commission id, date created, commission type, check id, amount, and details showing the order id that generated the commission.
- Clawback Commissions - Select any displayed commission for the clawback and enter any date for the clawback. An equal and offsetting negative commission amount will be created and clearly defined as a clawed back commission when viewed by customer service or distributors.
- Create Manual Commission Record - Your staff can also manually create a Unilevel commission record at any time for any individual. A commission type can be selected (allowing you to select Unilevel), a commission record date and amount are entered, and a comment section is available to make special notes that the distributor and your customer service staff will see when viewing commissions.
|
|
|
When your staff needs to void orders, with one check box they can easily claw back or reverse Unilevel commissions that were generated from the order being voided.
- Commissions Locator - Since Firestorm® provides product-based commission configurations, when an order contains a product configured for a Unilevel payout the order ID is written to the commission record. Therefore any commission record generated from any product in the order will automatically be located and clawed back when the void is selected to do so. It does not matter where in the genealogy structure the commission was paid, nor does it matter if the commission was compressed upline ? the system will locate the commission and claw it back.
- Optional Clawback Selection - Any order can be located by searching on the order id or the member id. The clawback option is available for selection on any order that is displayed.
|
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® your staff can move someone in the Unilevel Structure Tree with just a few clicks in a graphical genealogy tree view.
- Distributor Lookup - Your corporate staff can pull any downline for any distributor by entering their tax id and structure position number.
- Selection and Removal - Move any individual to the holding area, insert a new position and place the held individual onto the new position. All order and commission history is preserved and all moves are also logged in the individual?s record.
|
|
|
In the admin side of Firestorm® we even provide a separate move tool so your staff can move entire downlines if needed.
- Distributor Lookup - Any distributor's structure position can be located and the person they are currently under is displayed, along with the number of people on their frontline.
- Move Entire Downline - With one check box, your corporate staff can move the entire downline. Tree, move all children to the front line of the current placement, and move an entire downline . Your staff simply enters a member ID to be moved, enter the destination member ID and click Move. All order and commission history is preserved and all moves are also logged in the individual?s record.
|
|
|
The loop checker tool is very helpful when bringing over a Unilevel structure from another system. Our support staff helps transferring companies clean up their existing data by checking for structure loops and breaks. Unilevel, Binary and Sponsorship loops are detected, logged and given to the company to make corrections in their structure before going live. Once the corrections are made, the report can be run again and the process repeated until the structure integrity is completely validated.
|
|
|
|