One of the insurance companies that we represent pays us twice a month – on the 15th and on the last business day of the month. It is a very reputable company (we actually have our own health insurance through them) and we’ve been working with them for over four years. In that time, there has never been an error in our commissions. We get about $1000/month from them, which is quite a bit, considering the total we make from all our insurance companies together is usually less than $6000/month. Anyway, the commission is split with about $250 coming in on the 15th, and the rest at the end of the month. It’s always at least $700 – has been for years. Commissions do fluctuate as people drop coverage and others add, but we have enough clients now that the fluctuations are not too dramatic. Imagine my surprise on Friday when I checked out business account and saw that we had been paid $6.97 in commission. Hmmm. Especially a bummer since I always budget this company’s commission to pay our business credit cards, which usually run about $600/month.
I called them yesterday and was told that there was a processing error and that commissions didn’t get calculated in time for the last pay period, but that the money would be deposited on our December 15th paycheck. The business credit cards are due before then, so I asked if there was any way they could fix the problem without waiting two more weeks. None of their agents got paid last week, so I assume I wasn’t the first person who had called. The lady I talked with offered to have a check processed and overnighted to us, so we should be getting it tomorrow. Much better than waiting until December 15th.
We have the money in our emergency fund and I could have transferred it to our business checking account for a couple weeks and then transferred it back. But the business account doesn’t earn interest, and the emergency fund does. And the emergency fund is our personal money, whereas the business checking account is linked to the corporation, so it’s a lot more convenient to avoid transferring money back and forth. It’s nice to know that the money is there in case the insurance company hadn’t been able to do anything about the situation, but I’m glad I pushed to have a check sent out instead.
Mrs. Micah says
$6.97. Yeah, that’s not a lot. It’s a good thing they’re willing to overnight it to you…I had some problems getting other people’s payments at my last job. Our AP department wasn’t always forthcoming with the checks.
Speaking of jobs, I’m interviewing for a library job this afternoon!