How GoCardless Saves 3 Days/Month on Sales Commissions — Customer Story

At GoCardless, variable compensation is a strategic performance driver. It represents a significant portion of sales teams' compensation and plays a direct role in generating revenue internationally.

In a structured and growing environment, commission management must be reliable, easy to administer, and completely transparent. Before Qobra, GoCardless used Xactly Incent and Excel to manage its commissions. This was a cumbersome, complex, and time-consuming process.

This case study illustrates how GoCardless simplified, streamlined, and modernized its commission structure to make it a real driver of trust and performance.

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Context: a complex system that had become difficult to maintain

A sophisticated international organization

With multiple sales teams and specific compensation plans, GoCardless needed a robust and adaptable system.

Before Qobra, commission management relied on:

• Excel spreadsheets
• The Xactly Incent tool
• Manual processes
• Complex technical adjustments

This model no longer met the requirements for efficiency and scalability.

"Before Qobra we were using Excel spreadsheets and as you can imagine that was very unreliable, very time consuming and very difficult to access. We used another tool called Xactly which was just far too complicated for us as a business."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

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Challenges encountered before Qobra

An inefficient and time-consuming process

Commission management required a huge amount of resources.

Some operational realities:

• Up to 3-4 days required to execute monthly processes
• A full-time role dedicated to managing the system
• Unreliable and difficult-to-access Excel spreadsheets

The system was perceived as cumbersome and difficult to maintain.

Excessive complexity of the tool in place

Xactly was considered too complex for the organization.

Identified limitations:

• Difficult to use
• Requires technical skills similar to coding
• Frequent dependence on the support team
• Low autonomy of internal teams

Commissioning should not require advanced technical expertise to administer.

"It was really difficult to use, you need to have like coding experience to build the plans, so you always need to reach out to support team. It was somebody's full-time role every day to make that work, it was a nightmare."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

Lack of trust and transparency

Compensation is a sensitive subject.

Without clear visibility:

• Teams may doubt the amounts
• Trust in the system diminishes
• Discussions multiply

In an international context, establishing a relationship of trust with sales teams is essential.

"Money subject very sensitive for everyone, so it's just like really important to give people visibility and transparency that they can actually trust us, so then we can build relationships with sales team."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

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Qobra deployment: simplicity, speed, and peace of mind

Spectacular time savings

With Qobra, monthly commission management has gone from:

• A maximum of one day per month
• Approximately two hours to create a plan from scratch, test it, and activate it

The RevOps team no longer spends its energy keeping the system running.

Commission management is no longer a source of operational stress.

"It took like 3-4 days to run all the processes. With Qobra it's like maximum one day. It might take like 2 hours to build a plan from scratch, to test this plan and to activate this plan for everyone."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

Fast and smooth implementation

Onboarding was quick and structured.

In just a few hours, the new plans were integrated into Qobra.

The benefits of support:

• On-site sessions
• Available and responsive support
• Clear explanations
• Brainstorming sessions

The implementation went smoothly.

Game-changing ease of use

Qobra is intuitive.

Teams can:

• Set up plans
• Test rules
• Activate templates
• Modify elements without relying on external support

They have complete autonomy.

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Enhanced transparency and restored trust

Real-time visibility for sales reps

Sales reps can now:

• Instantly see the amount associated with a deal
• Track their progress
• Receive email notifications

This visibility makes compensation concrete.

Each signature immediately becomes tangible in financial terms.

"By having a real-time insight on like, okay if I close this deal this is how much I'm going to get, you also send like email notifications which can help the AE to feel it more real."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

Increased confidence in the system

The transparency of the calculation reinforces the credibility of the commission structure.

Teams now trust the tool.

Compensation is no longer a source of tension, but a motivational lever.

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A positive impact on sales performance

A tool appreciated by teams

It is rare for a commission tool to generate spontaneous enthusiasm.

At GoCardless, sales reps have expressed their satisfaction.

When sales teams adopt and appreciate a tool, it reflects a significant cultural change.

"It's rare to put a SaaS integration into a business and have sales come to me as RevOps Director and say 'wow I really like that new commission tool, that's really cool'."

Julija Slapaka, RevOps at GoCardless

A direct correlation between trust and performance

Motivation and performance are closely linked.

By offering:

• Transparency
• Visibility
• Simplicity

Qobra builds team confidence.

And that confidence fuels performance.

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Strategic benefits for GoCardless

Simplify operational management

The monthly workload is drastically reduced.

Restore confidence among sales teams

Transparency and visibility eliminate doubts.

Empower RevOps teams

Plans can be created and adjusted quickly without complex technical expertise.

Support overall performance

Variable compensation becomes a motivating tool that is consulted and used on a daily basis.

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Conclusion: moving from a complex system to a high-performance platform

The GoCardless case demonstrates that an overly complex tool can become a hindrance:

• Long processes
• Technical dependency
• Lack of agility
• High operational burden

With Qobra, GoCardless has adopted a system that is:

• Simple
• Intuitive
• Transparent
• Effective

Variable compensation becomes a controlled strategic lever, capable of supporting international growth and commercial performance.

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Qobra in a few figures

• More than 250 client companies (Doctolib, PayFit, Spendesk, Go1, Make, CoachHub, SeLoger, Figaro, Agicap, etc.)
• More than 20,000 users (Finance, Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, HR, Sales, etc.)
• International presence: France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Czech Republic