Comparison
Gamfi and an incentive programme in a spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is the most common alternative to a platform – and in many organisations it is the right choice. Below is a table splitting out what a spreadsheet does better and what we do better, and further down we set out what we do not have and when it is not worth coming to us.
| What we compare | A programme in Excel | Gamfi |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started, cost and workload | ||
| Time to the first calculation | yes.The same day. The change needs no purchasing process on the supplier's side. | partly.One thing decides it: where the result comes from. A single source with an API – the shortest. Results arriving from the regions in files – the longest. |
| Cost of running the programme over a year | partly.Zero licence cost, because you already have the spreadsheet. The cost is the hours the finance team puts in every cycle. | partly.A platform fee in place of some of those hours. We do not publish amounts – we go through how pricing works at a meeting. |
| Workload in every payout cycle | no.Collecting the data, recalculating, checking and sending it out – from scratch every time. | yes.A rule set once recalculates itself. What is left is keeping the rules in order and settling the exceptions. |
| Running the programme and the result | ||
| An employee sees their own result and progress without asking a manager | partly.Works if the file sits on a company drive everyone can view. Does not work when the result goes round as an attachment. | yes.Everyone sees their result, their progress and their place in the standings in their own view – as often as the data comes in from your system. |
| Breakdown of the bonus amount visible to the employee | no.The employee gets an amount. Where it came from is explained to them by their manager or the finance team. | yes.They see the components of the calculation themselves, without asking anyone. That takes away most disputes about bonuses. |
| Bonus and commission calculated on your organisation's rules | partly.It will calculate any rule, but a person does the calculating – from scratch in every cycle. | yes.A rule set once calculates itself, and the employee sees what the amount came from. |
| Retrospective correction: a reversal, a commission clawback, a cancelled contract | yes.You overwrite a cell and the matter is closed. | partly.A correction is possible and stays in the event log. A clawback calculates itself when the basis for it is in the data from the source; beyond that it is a manual change with a record. |
| Handing the finished calculation over for payment | partly.The file goes to HR admin and sometimes gets retyped there by hand. | partly.The calculation is ready to hand over to payroll. We agree the format and the cut-off date during the rollout. |
| Non-cash rewards and the tax on them – if you reward in kind | no.Ordering, handing over and settling the tax all happen outside the file. | partly.We run the catalogue, the order and the statuses; a catalogue partner delivers the reward or the card. We agree which side acts as the tax withholding agent and how the tax is settled during the rollout, to fit your model. |
| Risk, continuity and control | ||
| What happens when the person running the programme leaves | no.The formulas, the exceptions and the reasons behind decisions stay in their file and in their head. | yes.The rules sit in the configuration, the history in the event log. The next person starts from where things stand, not from an investigation. |
| Change history: who changed what in the rules, and when | partly.A file on a company drive has versions. A copy sent round by email has none at all. | yes.An event log for rule changes and for calculations. |
| Access control over pay data | partly.Can be set up on a company drive. Once a file has been sent by email it is out of your control. | yes.Permissions per role, sign-in through your company accounts. |
| Sight of the calculation formula itself | yes.A finance controller clicks on a cell and sees every component. | no.We do not show the formula inside the engine. A finance controller gets the breakdown of the amount and the calculation log, but cannot look inside a rule the way they can look inside a cell in a spreadsheet. |
| Availability on the day the period closes | yes.A file does not go down and does not depend on somebody else's service level agreement. | no.A cloud service. Availability is set out in a contract rather than resting on our goodwill – but it is a dependency you do not have with a spreadsheet. |
does it · does it partly or conditionally · does not do it
Four advantages of a spreadsheet we will not take away
We are not going to argue that a spreadsheet is bad. It has four advantages that will stay with it for good, because they follow from what it is.
You start today
No purchasing process, no security questionnaire, no rollout. Our platform will always have a higher barrier to entry than a new file.
Any rule, including an unusual one
An exception for one rep, an unusual commission split, a rule that only holds this quarter. In a spreadsheet that is one formula; in any system it is a conversation about configuration.
You can see all the maths
A finance controller clicks on a cell and sees every component of the calculation. We show the breakdown of the amount, but that is not the same as sight of a formula of your own.
No outage on the day you close the period
A file does not depend on anyone's service level agreement and you will open it in ten years. Moving to a platform, you take on a dependency you do not have today.
Where a spreadsheet stops being enough
Three problems that grow with the number of people and the number of exceptions in the rules – and that show up however good the author of the file is.
An error in a formula is the norm, not the exception
In audits carried out at universities, errors were found in most of the spreadsheets checked, and the chance of an error in the final result grows with every further step in the calculation. In a bonus programme an error does not stop at a number: it ends in a conversation with a rep about their money.
Our engine can get it wrong too – the difference is in what happens next. Once the rule is corrected, the calculation runs again for everyone, and the log shows what changed and when. In a spreadsheet you correct one copy and go looking for the rest.
Source: Raymond Panko's reviews of spreadsheet research (published between 1998 and 2016). We give it without a percentage, because the figures of 88% and 94% that go round come from audits of a few dozen spreadsheets, some of them from the 1990s, and 'an error' there does not mean 'an error that changes a payout'.
The file says nothing when it gets it wrong
The two most common cases in bonus programmes: a sum range cut short when a new region is added, and a lookup that stops matching after a rep's code changes. In that situation a spreadsheet reports no error. It gives a number that looks reasonable, and you hear about it from the person whose bonus came out too low.
The result reaches people when they can no longer change anything
The later a rep learns their result, the less they can do with it. With a recalculation once a month, they find out about the gap when the quarter is already settled. This is the one of the three differences a better spreadsheet will not fix, because its cause is the way of working, not the quality of the formulas.
No figure: we have neither our own measurement of this effect nor an independent study that would put it in percentages. The statistic going round the market about 'a 30% better result when a target is monitored' has no source publication, so we do not use it.
A third alternative: leave it in the CRM
Some organisations do not choose between a spreadsheet and a platform, but switch on the targets module in a system they already have. That is a sensible first step and sometimes it is enough. It is worth checking three things then, because that is usually where this route ends: whether an employee sees their own result, or only a manager sees a report; whether the bonus is calculated on your organisation's rules or lands in a spreadsheet at the end of the month; and whether it covers the people who are not in the CRM – customer service, field service, the partner network.
What Gamfi does not have and will not have
This is not a list of features for later. These are limits we will not cross, because they follow from what we are.
- We will not calculate a component that is in none of your systems. A manager's discretionary call of 'because they made an effort' is not something we replace – we can record it and settle it, but not calculate it.
- We will not close a calculation faster than the data arrives. If sales close on the fifth day of the month, the bonus will not be ready on the second. Automation does not speed up the source.
- We will not build any rule you like in five minutes. Thresholds, multipliers, weightings, splitting commission between people and settling a team are configuration. A rule based on a margin calculated outside your systems, or on a manager's decision on every transaction, is work on our side, counted in weeks.
- We are not a source of sales data. The result comes from your CRM or ERP and we will not replace those systems.
- We do not have a reward warehouse of our own. Catalogue partners deliver the non-cash rewards and the cards; we run the orders, the statuses and the complaints.
When Gamfi is not the right fit – stay with the spreadsheet
Six situations in which rolling out a platform will not pay for itself. The last two apply to large organisations too, so read to the end.
- A small, stable team. Up to a dozen or so people in one place, a spreadsheet will handle it without breaking a sweat.
- A simple bonus rule and one team in one place. One or two thresholds, no exceptions, no commission split between people, no team settlement – and no network spread across branches. Simple rules on their own, with a large, distributed team, are already our situation, which is why both conditions have to hold together.
- A programme for one team, with no intention of extending it. If it is to stay with one group and will not reach the rest of the organisation, you will calculate it in a file more cheaply.
- No one to run the programme. A tool will not replace an owner for the process. A neglected platform costs more than a neglected spreadsheet.
- The sales result does not exist in any system. If the numbers arrive from the regions in files and only come together at your end, sort out the source first. Connecting us to nothing makes no sense, and that applies to organisations of every size.
- You change the rules mid-period and the change has to apply retrospectively straight away. With that way of working a spreadsheet is faster than us and will stay faster. Configuration and a record in the event log cost time, which is at its most expensive for you just then.
The thresholds above are our own judgement from rollouts, not the result of a study – we found no independent study for the Polish market. We say so plainly, because the difference between a judgement and a measurement matters when a budget is at stake.
The questions that usually come up
Where does the platform get the results it calculates bonuses from?
From your systems – through our documented API, webhooks or a file. We do not sell ready-made connectors for particular systems: connecting the source is part of the rollout. Gamfi is not a source of sales data and does not replace your CRM.
Who on our side has to be involved?
Three roles, to differing degrees. The programme owner – usually the same person or the same team that runs the spreadsheet today, and in many organisations that is the finance team, not sales. IT once, when the source of results is connected. HR admin at the first period close, to set the format and the deadline for handing the data over for payment. Without an owner for the process no tool works, ours included.
What will IT and security say?
Sign-in through your company accounts, permissions per role, an event log, data held in the European Union. The details and the documents you can pass on are on the security page.
Do we have to stop using spreadsheets?
No. A spreadsheet stays a good tool for working through the options before you freeze the rules for the season. What comes off you with the platform is recalculating and sending out results in every cycle.