How Lendio Leveled Up Their Commissions Program and Eliminated “All-Nighters” with CaptivateIQ

After battling frequent system crashes and complex commission calculations with another modern commissions tool, Lendio’s finance team transitioned to CaptivateIQ’s more flexible and scalable solution. With CaptivateIQ, the Lendio team can trust their data, reduce calculation errors, and provide sales reps and partners with real-time visibility into their payouts.

Eliminated all-nighters required to complete manual commission calculations.
Increased system reliability with a stable data connection that doesn’t crash.
Reduced the team by one FTE without backfilling the role due to time savings.‍
Reduced system complexity and can now manage all payouts with a single instance.

The Heroes

Lendio is one of the leading small business loan brokers in the country with a network of 75+ alternative lenders and over 400,000 funded loans. With a growing team and partners spread across the country, Lendio needed a flexible solution to manage their increasingly complex compensation plans.

Industry: Financial Services
Location: Distributed Team
Employees: 300+
Payees: 230
Switched from: Other Modern Commission Tool

Leading Lendio's commission program are Shannon Burrows, Commission Analyst, and Clark Gee, VP of Finance. Their expertise and dedication are instrumental to streamline compensation operations and increase transparency for the team.

The Challenge: An Inflexible, Error-Prone System

Lendio's finance team was underwater. The company was growing quickly and their current Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) tool, couldn’t keep up. Since implementing this other modern commission solution the year prior, Lendio’s team faced one problem after another which created inefficiencies and increased manual work, frustrating the team and decreasing trust in commission payments.

Frequent system crashes due to an unstable data connector
Complex, SQL-heavy syntax made plan creation difficult and time-consuming
Manual calculations bogged down the team and pulled focus from strategic projects
Unreliable support team that would leave them hung out to dry‍
Limited data integration prevented a seamless connection with Lendio's partner portal

[QUOTE
| quote: Our biggest challenge with our previous solution was dealing with constant data connection outages. Sometimes we wouldn’t realize that data wasn’t syncing until the end of the month when commissions needed to be calculated. Our team was always scrambling to make sure our data was accurate. It was a mess.
| name: Clark Gee
| title: VP of Finance
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/66c646eab0061e496d830530_Mask%20group%20(1).png
|]

The Catalyst for Change: A Platform Outage Leads to an All-Nighter

The final straw for Lendio came when their tool’s data connection with Snowflake crashed during a particularly critical period, just days before a major commission payout. This left the team scrambling to manually verify data and troubleshoot errors to process calculations.

The crash was so bad that the team was forced to stay all night to untangle the mess.

Frustrated by the frequent issues and the lack of reliable support, Lendio began searching for a more dependable solution to help their team operate more efficiently and strategically.

The Solution: A Fully Flexible & User-Friendly System

When Lendio decided to replace their commission solution, they carefully evaluated several vendors, including Performio and Callidus. They needed a stable solution with a user-friendly interface and strong support for complex commission plans. Cost was also a major factor, as they had overspent on unused licenses with their current vendor. CaptivateIQ impressed the team during a proof of concept by building out the core commission plans in just a few hours, and demonstrating the platform’s tease of use and time-to-value.

[QUOTE
| quote: We were super impressed how quickly Captivate was able to pull together a Proof of Concept using our real data. We were using the platform on day two. That would have never been possible with our previous vendor.
| name: Clark Gee
| title: VP of Finance
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/66c646eab0061e496d830530_Mask%20group%20(1).png
|]

Improved Data Stability and Connectivity

After a fast and efficient implementation, Lendio’s number one priority was to implement a new data connection with their Snowflake data warehouse. CaptivateIQ provided a stable and reliable connector, which eliminated the disruptions they experienced with their previous vendor. The new connection allowed for continuous data synchronization and eliminated the manual intervention and troubleshooting that had previously plagued the team.

[QUOTE
| quote: With CaptivateIQ our systems are a lot more stable. Not only does this give our team peace of mind, it also saves us countless hours of manual troubleshooting.
| name: Shannon Burrows
| title: Commission Analyst
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/66c6481b68b876f306de20e9_Shannon.png
|]

Streamlined Commission Plan Implementation and Management

Despite being a modern solution, their prior tool’s interface and syntax was so complex that Lendio needed to purchase service hours just to manage their plans day-to-day. Using CaptivateIQ’s familiar, spreadsheet-like interface, the Lendio team was able to quickly create and manage their commission plans with no IT or engineering support. The team saved so much time they were able to avoid backfilling an FTE position when a team member left the company, enabling Lendio to reinvest the cost savings in other areas of the business.

Data Integration and Transparency

Lendio’s previous vendor’s lack of data extraction capabilities meant they were unable to create a connection with their partner portal, making it impossible to provide partners with real-time commission information. With CaptivateIQ, partners can now access detailed commission and revenue share breakdowns alongside loan data, all from a single interface. This integration helps partners see their full pipeline and increases transparency and trust.

[QUOTE
| quote: With CaptivateIQ, we can send data directly to our partner portal in real-time. Partners can log in and see their commission reports instantly, which has built trust and improved motivation across our sales team.
| name: Shannon Burrows
| title: Commission Analyst
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/66c6481b68b876f306de20e9_Shannon.png
|]

Built for Scale

Before CaptivateIQ, Lendio had to manage their commission plans using two separate instances because their prior solution couldn't handle different payment schedules (bi-weekly vs monthly) within one instance. Reports also had to be generated separately for each instance which led to fragmented data and increased administrative overhead.

With CaptivateIQ, Lendio was able to consolidate all their commission payments for internal sales teams, partners, and franchisees into one platform instance. This drastically reduced process and reporting complexity and helped set Lendio up for long-term scale.

[QUOTE
| quote: We’re saving so much time now that we can manage all of our data and payments in a single platform instance. It was so frustrating having to do everything twice with our previous vendor.
| name: Shannon Burrows
| title: Commission Analyst
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/66c6481b68b876f306de20e9_Shannon.png
|]

Results: Reliable Data + Reduced Complexity = Time & Cost Savings

Eliminated all-nighters: Lendio's commission tasks are now completed within regular working hours, eliminating the need for fire drills and overnights, significantly improving employee work-life balance.
Increased system reliability with a stable data connection that doesn’t crash: CaptivateIQ's stable architecture has eliminated system downtime so the Lendio team has consistent access to accurate data.
Reduced the team by one FTE: The Lendio team saved so much time on commission management that when a team member left they were able to avoid backfilling the role.
Reduced system complexity: Lendio previously had to manage their partners and internal reps using two separate instances due to different payment schedules. With CaptivateIQ, they can now manage all commissioned employees within a single platform.

With CaptivateIQ, Lendio’s finance team now has an intuitive and transparent solution for managing commission operations.