If you’re stuck in spreadsheet hell trying to manage sales commissions or track GTM (go-to-market) metrics, you’re not alone. Salesforce is powerful, but it’s not built for commission calculations. That’s where Spiff comes in—it automates commissions and saves a ton of time. But integrating the two can feel daunting if you’re not living and breathing APIs.
This guide is for admins, ops folks, and anyone who’s tired of manual data pulls between Salesforce and Spiff. I’ll walk you through the real steps, flag the pitfalls, and give you the shortcuts that actually work.
Why Integrate Salesforce with Spiff?
Let’s keep it simple: Salesforce holds your customer and sales data; Spiff calculates and pays commissions. If you connect them, you:
- Stop wasting time on manual exports/imports.
- Get more accurate commissions (no more “whoops” at payroll).
- Give reps real-time visibility so they stop bugging you for updates.
- Make audits and comp plan changes way less painful.
But, and this is important: integrations don’t magically fix broken processes. If your data in Salesforce is a mess, Spiff will just automate the chaos. Clean up before you plug in.
Step 1: Prep Your Salesforce Data
Before you even think about connecting anything, do a little housekeeping. Spiff will pull data directly from Salesforce—so garbage in, garbage out.
Check these basics:
- Opportunities: Are close dates, amounts, and owners filled out correctly?
- Custom fields: Is all the info you’ll need for commissions (like product type, region, etc.) actually tracked?
- Stage names: Are these standardized, or does everyone use their own lingo?
- User records: Do Salesforce users line up with who’s getting paid in Spiff?
Pro tip: Run a spot check on recent deals. If you see missing or weird data, fix your process first. Otherwise, you’ll end up building workarounds forever.
Step 2: Map What You Want to Sync
You don’t need every single field, just the ones Spiff uses for calculations and reporting. Map these out on paper before you touch any settings.
Typical fields to sync:
- Opportunity Name
- Opportunity Owner
- Amount (or MRR/ARR)
- Close Date
- Stage (to know when deals are “done”)
- Product details (if you have different commission rates)
- Custom fields for special comp plans (region, segment, etc.)
What NOT to sync:
Don’t bother with fields you never use, or with fields that are always blank. More data = more ways things break.
Step 3: Set Up a Salesforce Integration User
Don’t use your personal admin account for integrations. Create a dedicated “integration user” in Salesforce with only the permissions it needs:
- Read access to Opportunities, Users, Accounts, Products, and any custom fields you mapped.
- API access (check the Salesforce edition—you’ll need API enabled).
- No delete rights—if Spiff’s integration goes haywire, you don’t want it deleting data.
Why bother?
If you leave the company or change your password, the integration won’t break. Plus, it keeps your audit trail cleaner.
Step 4: Connect Spiff to Salesforce
Now for the actual hookup. Spiff has a built-in Salesforce connector—it’s mostly point-and-click, but there are a few gotchas.
Here’s the gist:
- Log in to Spiff as an admin.
- Go to the integrations/settings section. Look for “Connect Salesforce.”
- Log in with your Salesforce integration user.
- Authorize the permissions Spiff asks for (this is where that integration user pays off).
- Pick which Salesforce object(s) to sync: Opportunities, Products, etc.
- Map the Salesforce fields to Spiff’s data model. This is where your earlier mapping work comes in handy.
Watch out for:
- Field type mismatches: Date fields, picklists, and numbers sometimes need to be formatted just so. If Spiff throws errors, double-check the field types.
- API limits: On smaller Salesforce editions, you can hit daily API call limits if Spiff syncs too often. If this happens, dial back the sync frequency.
Don’t overthink it:
Start basic. You can always add more fields or objects later.
Step 5: Build or Import Your Commission Rules in Spiff
This is where the magic happens—or the headaches, if you try to get too fancy on day one.
- Spiff lets you configure commission plans using a visual builder. You can set up rules like “10% on new business, 5% on upsells,” etc.
- If you already have comp plans in Excel or another system, Spiff’s onboarding team can sometimes import them for you—but don't count on perfect results. Plan to check their work.
- Test with a handful of reps and deals before rolling out to the whole team.
What works:
- Start simple. Get one comp plan working, then layer on exceptions/bonuses.
- Use Spiff’s built-in audit tools to see how a payout was calculated.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t try to automate every single edge case (like that one-off bonus from last year). Handle exceptions manually at first.
- Don’t expect reps to stop asking questions. Even with dashboards, they’ll want to double-check their payouts for a while.
Step 6: Test the Integration
This part’s boring but important. Don’t skip it.
- Run a sync and check that new/updated Opportunities in Salesforce actually show up in Spiff.
- Check a few real deals from start to finish: do the amounts, owners, and dates all line up?
- Do a fake payout run and make sure the numbers match what you’d expect from your old process.
Pro tip: Test with both big and small deals. Sometimes rounding errors or field mapping issues only show up at the edges.
Step 7: Train Your Users (and Set Expectations)
If you’ve ever rolled out a new tool, you know the drill: people won’t read the manual. Here’s how to keep it smooth:
- Show reps where to see their commission dashboards in Spiff.
- Explain what data “counts”—if it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist.
- Tell them commissions aren’t real until deals are closed in Salesforce (no more “I emailed you about that deal last week!”)
- Set a clear process for handling disputes or weird cases.
What to ignore:
Don’t get sucked into endless dashboard customization. Most reps just want to know what they’ll get paid and when.
Step 8: Monitor, Maintain, and Tweak
You’re live, but you’re not done.
- Check that the sync is working every week, especially after big Salesforce changes (like new fields or workflows).
- Update commission rules in Spiff as your comp plans evolve.
- Keep an eye on API usage if your Salesforce org is busy.
Pro tip:
Schedule a quarterly review with a real user (not just another admin) to catch issues before they snowball.
Honest Take: What Works, What Doesn’t
- Works: Automating commission calcs, giving reps visibility, cutting down on manual errors.
- Doesn’t: Fixing messy Salesforce data, handling every exception out of the box, instant user adoption.
- Ignore: Fancy features you’ll never use, like “AI-powered commission forecasting.” Focus on what actually saves you time.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Integrating Salesforce and Spiff isn’t rocket science, but it does take prep and follow-through. Start with what matters—clean data, simple rules, and clear communication. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Make it work for your team, then improve as you go. And if something breaks? Don’t panic. That’s just another day in ops.